About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

February 9, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 09 February 2022

Like this:

Like Loading...

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment499

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (499)

Login to comment or vote

krazykiwi

This should concern everyone. The Department of Homeland Security, you know, the ones charged with keeping the US safe from violent terrorism has a new string to their bow: they are now charged with doing something about “the proliferation of false or misleading narratives which sow discord or undermine trust in US government institutions.”

Yes, this is a heavily militarised agency being told to go after bloggers who question official government narratives. [deleted by Mod, complete lies and defamatory] But anyone pointing that out, not so much.
14 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 9, 2021 1:31pm
- MCōs
  
  Why should it concern myself?
  
  3 16
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:03pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    I have absolutely no idea what’s in your mind. If you wanted a discussion you could respond “That doesn’t concern me because [..insert rationale..]”.
    
    16 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:36pm
  - kowtow
    
    A bit like your Thai generals posts , who gives a poo ?
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:54pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    MCōs
    You are evidently an exemplar of a short-term thinker who habitually thinks only in terms of 2 inches in front of his nose and thus cannot apparently entertain an abstract notion and reason through to its logical conclusion and implications.
    
    The clear implications of such a policy are a state monopoly on the truth and thus an inability for the people to openly challenge pronouncements of the state. In other words, totalitarianism. Who says the state is correct? The state says so. While this is specific to the US, it doesn’t take a soothsayer to suggest that what can be done in the US can be done here as well.
    
    This should concern anyone who has something interesting and intelligent to say that may challenge what the authorities may want the public to believe. But you’re probably correct to wonder why you personally should be concerned, because only those with something to say wish to retain the ability to say it.
    
    4 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:59pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Mod, with reference “[deleted by Mod, complete lies and defamatory]” I reject your moderation as baseless. Every statement I made about Fauci’s actions is verifiable. And yes, yes I will take it up with DPF.
  
  For others, I have been posting here since IIRC 2008. Until 6 months ago I’d never had a post moderated or deleted. Over the last 6 months I’ve had 5 that I know of, so probably more. I haven’t changed my style, nor domain of content. I’m genuinely curious as to what has changed. And Mod, if you delete this post I will simply re-post it tomorrow.
  
  13 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 4:31pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Why should folks stay longer in a MIQ facility when the Government fails to provide timely covid tests?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/02/returnees-devastated-after-slow-covid-test-lab-processing-traps-80-in-miq-hotel.html
80 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:03am
- I remember when
  
  Perhaps there should be police action with charges relating to unlawful detention.
  
  39 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:23am
- Luke Piewalker
  
  Had a friend wait 8 days for a covid result.
  
  What a useless government.
  
  54 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:32am
  - Phronesis
    
    If they had been positive they would have recovered by the time they got the result. I expect they would still have been required to isolate though!
    
    25 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:34am
- DeepBlue
  
  Ask DJ Dimension. He wasn’t prosecuted.
  
  20 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:34pm
- Clownworld
  
  Why MIQ at all? No proof or evidence or scientific facts show it works.
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:51pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    It is called ‘Containment Theatre’.
    
    It’s all the rage with trainee tyrants, the world over.
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:06pm
- krazykiwi
  
  It is unlawful to hold any MIQ detainee beyond 20 days. Any detainee that rattles a legal sabre on this will be released to self-isolation.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 5:05pm
Tony Stuart

According to this story from the Herald, Andrew Little is looking at a shake-up of funding to ambulance contract providers, such as St John.

However it fails to mention the elephant in the emergency room; that a significant number of emergency personnel were stood down prior to Christmas because they did not comply with vaccine mandates.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/govt-shake-up-woman-95-suffers-heart-attack-and-waits-more-than-an-hour-for-an-ambulance/CDJX63V2B3YMJEO3RZNIQDHCSE/

Given that the majority of those who have tested positive to Omicron so far have been fully vaccinated, isn’t it time to review that mandate, and reinstate those emergency workers, along with a Rapid Antigen Testing routine, enabling them to work provided they have tested negative?
94 4
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:06am
- artemisia
  
  Not just emergency workers. Noticed TV coverage of the Wellington protest had a couple with FIRED signs.
  
  Apparently even fully vaxxed workers, if critical (whatever that means) will have to be regularly tested, then they and close contacts will be sent home when positive. Surely those with neg tests should be welcomed back to work (or premises as customers) even if unvaxxed. What a mess coming right up.
  
  62 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:16am
  - bronny1
    
    More will be fired soon when they refuse the booster.
    
    12 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:57am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Add that to the existing shortges of other covid mandates.
  
  Health, education, fire, police, military, corrections. …….
  
  Question have the military made a strategic withdrawal from MIQ under cover of darkness.
  
  45 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:18am
- kowtow
  
  Today’s Whoreald cartoon portrays anyone who questions the insanity as a sheep ( targetted at the Wellington protest of course)
  
  But that’s the Media Mantra , Don’t Question Dear Leader.
  
  I note too that across the msm they are pushing this weeks state sponsored theme from the Ministry of Truth , loyally , of get boosted .
  
  Who are the sheep ?
  
  63 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:22am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Get boosted. Because the clarion call to take the flu vaccine from two years ago is a real winner /s
    
    6 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:10pm
- CaptainCompromise
  
  The other elephant in the room is that St John is a shit of a place to work or volunteer. Management for *years* have increasingly treated their talented, qualified staff as children who need decisions made for them by an ever more demanding task master.
  
  Volunteers are treated like underperforming but free second-class employees with phenomenal expectations around availability, qualifications, and training that are completely unworkable and inflexible, with zero gratitude given. Many move to FENZ.
  
  Paid staff are paid crap and treated just as bad, because they don’t have to compete with anyone.
  
  All staff are given next to zero freedom, with bizarre h+s rules like 90km/h GPS monitored speed limits on the open road, but while also they’re expected to work solo at times and work 12 hour non stop night shifts. The organisation is way to top heavy and is disconnected from its staff, and if it wasn’t for the goodwill of their staff who want to help the public, it’d have reached this point years ago.
  
  48 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:32am
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    To give you an idea – 3 weeks ago I lent assistance to a cyclist with a severe head injury and suspected neck injury. We stayed with this young lad for 2 hours waiting for an ambulance. The dispatcher even suggested we take him to the local ED which was appalling advice given the suspected neck injury. The ambos were visibly stressed when they arrived. This is a recurring theme in Auckland which will only get worse unless there is an overhaul of paramedic services.
    
    28 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:41am
  - kevn
    
    @CC… Interesting. You have fleshed out what I have felt for years. They seem a very heavy handed, inefficient organisation with a core of unpaid actual workers. No need for too much accountability, volunteers are like fodder, give them a uniform and just do it folks. The St J seniors love dress-up and medal time.
    
    29 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:42am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Sounds exactly like Coastguard NZ.
    
    18 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:44am
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      Actually, the Coastguard volunteers are very highly trained. So much so that it is difficult to attract new volunteers because of the amount of training required before being allowed to be operational.
      
      There are almost no paid personnel. In our unit the only paid position is the treasurer.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 10, 2022 7:27am
    - CaptainCompromise
      
      Unfortunately in recent times FENZ is also falling into that category.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 10, 2022 8:02am
- Justitia
  
  But that’s not part of the plan Tony. Remember , “two classes of people? – yep! yep!” The vaccinated are very capable of transmitting Omicron and may do so even when asymptomatic. But Cindy’s “monstrous regiment of women” hysterically portray the unvaccinated and protestors against the mandates as “unclean” and a danger to the community. I have never held New Zealanders in such low regard, and it’s hard to see how we can ever recover from the divisiveness Ardern has eagerly promoted to shore up her base.
  
  61 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:46am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Karenocracy, as evidenced by the almost 2:1 female to male support ratio that labour has. Letting low-information feelz driven women dictate a countries policies is an express ride to destroying it Venezuela/Greece style. We will quickly slide and see a flight of productive (young) people to less toxically governed places where they can earn more and not be held back by the destructive and divisive marxist agendas being enacted by the left.
    
    47 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:23am
    - Overworked
      
      The PM deliberately cultivates support from the more idiotic part of the female population via her facebook sessions, the media and women’s magazines and has done since she was made Labour leader. It’s worth buying a womens’ magazine to see just how fawning they are.
      
      Her PR drips out well spaced items of personal or family information which will appeal to that population and which the media pick up on and use.
      
      These women (mostly) are one of the number of population subsets her PR cultivates. Together, they add up to a significant number of voters.
      
      Her PR is extraordinarily effective. Her band of loyal followers then savagely attack anyone who dares criticize her in a way that always brings images from zombie frenzy movies to mind. Charlotte Bellis’s twitter was a recent example, not sure if some of the worst comments have been cleaned out but I felt ill reading some of them.
      
      25 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:38am
    - Matt Long
      
      Jacinda and her army of Karen’s, I like that.
      
      26 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:50am
    - Biscuit
      
      ‘Karenocracy’, love it, UN!
      
      Karens have definitely degenerated as a species since the time I, erm, dated one by that name in my early Uni days…
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:59pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Well, you can’t complain too much. She said when first elected that she was going to lead a ‘Transformational Govt’ among other things.
    However, whilst Uni Students, Woman’s Libbers, Wokeists, and Unionists were rejoicing, our MSM deliberately neglected to inform us of exactly what she had in mind wrt ‘Transformational’.
    IMO she was always of a mind to transform NZ into a Racially Segregated Socialist Utopia with herself or Helen Clark as President for Life.
    However, the irony is, she was elected for a second term. How does that work?
    
    19 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:08am
- Maxx
  
  With the obvious question, what would a “shake up” actually achieve? How about starting with understanding of the issue.
  
  Too many of these people see a problem and their first instinct is to tear the whole thing down, inevitably rebuilding in the same systemic foundations that created the issue in first place.
  
  20 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:54am
- Stellaboxer
  
  Tony you misunderstand the motives of mandates I believe. Just as the traffic light system is designed to push people to vaccinate rather than being a useful health response so mandates are designed to coerce people to vaccinate. The real questions are despite all the contrary international evidence why is the NZ government so obsessed with vaccination rather than any other treatment? Why is Omicron being treated by our government and media as a deadly threat? Why are we still attempting to control the spread? Why are unvaccinated people being discriminated against when it’s vaccinated people who have brought both Delta and Omicron into the country? Why does any questioning of vaccines result in censorship and derision whilst claims for its effectiveness go unchallenged? Why do we still have closed borders and MIQ whilst Omicron is in the community ? Why continue to use modeling that has continually grossly over estimated all negative scenarios?
  
  68 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:56am
  - Charmaine Hawke
    
    Why does National think Labour’s policy is fantastic and they just need to do it better?
    Luxon risks making the biggest strategic political blunder in NZ political history unless he starts to realise the people protesting is representitive of all New Zealand.
    
    48 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:35am
    - Salacious Crumb
      
      Yeah I’m absolutely disgusted with Luxon and National. These people are supposed to represent the whole electorate and choosing not to engage is a sign of ideological and intellectual cowardice.
      
      Q. Why don’t National actually side with the health experts who officially advised the government against vaccine mandates and passports?
      A. Because they’re the same shit brand of socialist ideology with different marketing.
      
      26 7
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:47am
      - Fight4NZ
        
        Or, as a mainstream party with a knowledge of science and sense of responsibility there is no reason for National to try to pander to the misinformed fringe.
        Could you provide a link to the health experts who officially advised against the passports?
        
        2 10
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:10pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Sure
        
        Auckland University of Technology (AUT) professor of public health Grant Schofield said mandates will lead to job losses among those unvaccinated, and that will put a strain on the health system.
        
        “We can predict that the exact thing we are trying to avoid, overwhelming the health system, is exactly what we are going to do by firing health workers.
        
        “This will cause serious harm. It almost certainly will mean that our already overwhelmed health and education systems will not have the staff to carry out normal duties.”
        
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-vaccine-mandates-cause-harm-and-division-public-health-expert-claims/OXW3B6IFZSJ5J46GEU6WF7TBGE/
        
        9 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 4:05pm
      - Fight4NZ
        
        So not actually official advice.
        Stating the obvious that mandates will mean antivaxxers would be stood down.
        Cut out some dead wood then.
        
        1 6
        Report
        February 9, 2022 5:17pm
    - Colville
      
      I think Luxon can do the sums and knows that the mandates will be a thing of the past by the time election 2023 rolls around and it will be gone from peoples list of important things.
      Come 2023, with petrol above $3, inflation at 10% and intrest rates heading for 8% people will be worried about being able to pay the bills.!!
      He cant win the election by pandering to a bunch single topic ranters now.
      
      24 10
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:57am
      - Stellaboxer
        
        Colville I will never forget the mandates or the striping of our rights or any politicians that supported them either directly or by their refusal to speak against them until my dying day
        
        22 4
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:05am
      - Colville
        
        Stella
        You have a binary option in 2023.
        Do you want the Greens in power?
        
        If yes, vote for anyone but ACT/Nat.
        
        15 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:35am
      - bronny1
        
        I’m with Stella. I will never forgive ACT and National for this. Shows a level of stupidity and hatred I just can’t fathom.
        I will vote for Winston before either of those ever gets my vote again.
        
        11 9
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:06pm
      - Paulus
        
        2023 Petrol above $3 per litre.
        It is at that NOW so you may well expect it to be over $4 per litre, remembering that almost 50% is Tax.
        
        5 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:51pm
    - mawm
      
      Because they are all beholden to the NWO/WEF and not their electorate.
      
      10 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:49am
    - Matt Long
      
      Just saw Shane Reti’s latest Facebook post criticising the protesters in Wellington, the comments are universally critical of his comments and National’s stance on mandates.
      National are offending a lot of supporters, and losing votes for a long time to come.
      
      24 7
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:09am
      - Fight4NZ
        
        More evidence the protesters are on the wrong side of history.
        
        2 18
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:12pm
    - Jim
      
      I’m so ashamed of the acceptance of discrimination and general covid myopia demonstrated by all politicians on this issue. Luxon what’s your USP?
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 6:21pm
  - Phronesis
    
    The vaccine mandate doesn’t make sense in the context of what was already a very high vaccination rate by global standards. Its real purpose may be to soften us up for the next mandate. As one of my asian friends said, it didn’t even cross their minds to disobey the government, that’s just how things are where they grew up. Soon to be how it is in NZ too I suspect.
    
    18 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:47am
    - Mummy
      
      I have long thought that this entire worldwide debacle is some sort of dummy run for something else much bigger further down the track. Although what that will be I shudder to think.
      
      9 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:49am
  - Sacha
    
    After I retired from ICU, I lived in a small NI town which had a small ambulance station. I volunteered as a member of the local unit. which was chronically short staffed. I didn’t want to be the head cherang, just one of the team, because I enjoyed first aid/trauma work, and duly turned up for training sessions. In my past employment I had completed a senior level ambulance rescue course within the hospital so I was quite surprised to be told that it wasn’t ‘recognised’ in the field, and that I would have to re-do the course, so I faded from the scene.
    In stead, I became something of a go-to person in the local community, quite often contacted before the St Johns people were called.
    
    23 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:33am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Similar stories with the “Playcentre” movement.
      
      I was told I would have to undertake courses in child development and child behaviour if I wanted to enrol my child in Playcentre… As was the local GP (who had delivered most of the kiddies in the centre).
      
      That was the last time I ventured down to their playgroups (for the under-twos)..
      
      7 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 4:11pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    +10
    
    Yours are all the correct questions. Each and every one of them shows our government (and in many cases, the opposition) as vapid and narcissistic
    
    4 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:42pm
- mandk
  
  I am sure the MoH knows exactly what proportion of people diagnosed with omicron have been vaxxed, but has the information been release?
  
  I can’t say I have noticed, but I suspect the MoH would be reluctant to divulge if it became increasingly obvious – as it surely will – that being vaxxed neither prevents people getting the bug, nor spreading it.
  
  45 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:22am
  - David George
    
    They (MOH) have stopped issuing the vaccination status for those hospitalised, something about privacy.
    A cynical mind might conclude they are trying to hide something, it’s beyond ridiculous that a simple total could breach anyone’s privacy.
    
    42 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:21am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      The information is still available to “researchers,” I suspect
      
      Researchers can request detailed data on COVID-19 in New Zealand by sending an email to the Ministry of Health COVID-19 Response and Coordination team – COVID-19Response@health.govt.nz
      
      https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-case-demographics#hospitalisations
      
      19 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:31am
    - Mummy
      
      They have also stopped giving out the delta figures although I am sure we will be told when the final delta case recovered 28 days ago. I would bet the house that nearly all those in hospital have delta not omicron.
      
      7 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:51am
  - Dougal10
    
    The MOH are also a bit devious about the unvaxed in their figures , most of them are actually couldn’t be vaxed like really sick people and those that were below the age that the government were injecting at any particular time
    
    13 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:22am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    “I suspect the MoH would be reluctant to divulge if it became increasingly obvious – as it surely will – that being vaxxed neither prevents people getting the bug, nor spreading it.”
    
    If anyone doesn’t yet know about the non-efficacy of the vaccines by this late stage (a fact that has been knowable by anyone with an internet connection for at least 6 months), then they do not deserve to participate in the political process. It is their duty to stay as informed as possible, and to do so actively, not be content to have curated information dished up to them by self-interested news media and politicians. The justification for disqualification is even more acute when the inefficacy is fully grasped, yet is not admitted or is purposely lied about (this latter applies to the government and the opposition).
    
    9 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:25am
    - Fight4NZ
      
      Disclaimer:
      – Data worldwide has demonstrated the efficacy of the vaccines beyond doubt up to the arrival of Omicron. With Omicron evidence shows a lower inhibition of transmission but remains high for serious disease and fatality.
      –The Covid19 vaccines have worked surprisingly effectively along side non-medical measures. Compare Delta outbreak in NZ to other countries where it got into the community.
      – The vaccines are definitively not gene therapies
      – Few in the population are terrified by the virus, the vast majority have just taken the sensible precautions on offer. Most fear-stricken are antivaxxers of the vaccine which has proven to have a very high safety record internationally.
      – the minimal inconveniences of the non-medical measures will be quickly forgotten in the return to normality.
      – the process to return to normality is underway with the arrival of omicron, with NZ moving along its own schedule which will be argued to be slow or fast but ultimately of minor consequence.
      – There is no evidence vaccination can lead to more virulent strains. Unsubstantiated antivaxxer scare story.
      – the rare phenomenon of Original Sin has not been observed with Covid-19
      – The Jews and other “untermensch” of the Nazi Germany regime were defined by inherent and unalterable attributes. You can get a vaccination and move from unvaxxed to vaxxed in NZ. Any attempt to draw a parallel is not only wildly inaccurate, but disrespectful of those who suffered and those who fought to liberate them.
      
      2 15
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:22pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        A flaccid cut’n’paste?
        
        Is that all you have, child?
        
        C’mon. Hit us with that military-grade evidence. You know you want to.
        
        8 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 4:46pm
      - riffer
        
        krazykiwi attempts to counter sane and rational discussion with personal insults and vitriol.
        This is the intellectual equivalent of a monkey in a cage flinging their own poo at passers-by.
        It is equally sad that they attract upticks for this.
        Conservative voters used to be people of honour, intelligence and respect. I see very little of that on this site.
        I also speculate this comment will attract the usual “if you don’t like it then leave” comments from the usual monkeys.
        
        2 7
        Report
        February 9, 2022 7:48pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Riffer, I made that comment because Fight4NZ posted the exact same non-contextually relevant comment in reply to a comment I made yesterday. You’re doing rather a lot of speculating BTW. Those hunches make you feel good?
        
        3 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 9:57pm
- mawm
  
  Tony – as both vaccinated and unvaccinated can spread the virus then both should be tested ……. or, as it is very rare for an asymptomatic person to spread the virus, maybe we should just encourage people who have any symptoms, even extremely mild ones, to stay at home and take a RAT if they want.
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:45am
  - mandk
    
    The problem is that the govt and MoH have created a situation in which many people would be reluctant to get tested, in case it results in themselves and the rest of their household having to isolate for up to 24 days.
    
    Get tested when you have cold-like symptoms?
    
    No way! It’s nothing that that paracetamol and a medicinal whisky can’t handle.
    
    10 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:32pm
    - mawm
      
      “…….. if they want.” was there because of that situation. I don’t think it’ll make one bit of a difference either way.
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:25pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Plain old Jack Daniels. Alcohol will not fix your problems, but neither will milk
      
      5 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:54pm
- Prince
  
  [deleted by Mod, racially motivated crap]
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:34pm
- DeepBlue
  
  I am trying to work out what will happen to my elderly Mum in her home, if her daily care visitor gets Covid. We need as many people as possible to get back to work and fill the voids.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:49pm
artemisia

We keep hearing that landlords are not selling up in any great numbers. Not a rental crisis then.

However.

The number of residential properties on the market is increasing fast. Raw sale listings just from Trademe since the beginning of 2022 show an average increase of around 850 listings each week. That’s all residential sales so just an overall trend. No doubt many reasons including seasonal. New build listings remain at around 10% so also tracking upwards. (Is that an early indicator of a problem for developers?)

Meanwhile almost no change in rental vacancy listings, they remain at a touch over 9,000, similar to the last few months though slowly increasing. Also raw data.

So if about a third of homes are rentals, overall sale listings this year are increasing at a fast clip, and vacancies are fairly static some conclusions about landlords selling up could be tentatively drawn.

Meanwhile in November / December 2021 nearly 3,400 new households were accepted on to the social housing waiting list.

About those tentative conclusions ….
35 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:07am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Well take your pick.
  
  Interest rates on the way up, inflation on the way up, bubble everything slowing down.
  
  Or direct government interference to fix the problem.
  
  Ring fencing loses, increased compliance costs, loss of interest, exspence deductibility, ever more tightening of the rent controls, inability to remove unsuitable tenants….watch this space for more stupidity.
  
  31 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:26am
- pdm
  
  Heard HDPA saying yesterday that the compliance costs made it uneconomic to rent so she is going Air BNB on her/their Auckland property.
  
  She also had a friend and neighbour, in Wellington I think, doing exactly the same.
  
  From what she said that is two family suitable rental properties off the market because of government – (my word) stupidity.
  
  61 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:36am
  - yossarian
    
    Air BNB I would imagine it’s getting more and more attractive. Who wants to play for a motel to find out later that its full of the Mongrel Mob, because it’s being used for emergency housing.
    
    38 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:21am
    - Biscuit
      
      Indeed, yossarian.
      
      I was a big motel user in pre-pandemic days.
      
      But once the pandemic abates and I can travel again I think I’d prefer to access an Air BNB property precisely for the reasons you cite…
      
      8 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:03pm
  - artemisia
    
    Short term rentals can be (and most are) not subject to the increasing rules and complexities relating to rentals. Landlords with a single rental (and most are) have two shows of understanding and correctly applying all the rules. (That would be no show and a dog’s show.)
    
    They do have choices though, as asset owners usually do.
    
    Engage a property manager and pay them a chunk of the rent to manage, not always well BTW. Rents increase.
    
    Sell up. Maybe a landlord will purchase, but the new rules around bright line, compliance and interest deductibility make that a fairly stupid decision. (5 year bright line period starts to expire first quarter 2023. Why pay probably 39% of 5 years profit to the government if you can afford to wait.) Many will be off the rental market.
    
    Educate themselves. Good luck with that, speaking as someone who has done just that.
    
    Frankly, it’s a hot mess for tenants and pretty much completely laid at the door of this government’s decisions.
    
    20 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:33am
    - artemisia
      
      Might not have been very clear in previous post. Most short terms rentals are not subject to the Residential Tenancies Act new ridiculousness. A few can be.
      
      7 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:02am
- Maxx
  
  Some anecdotal reasons I have heard from investors lately of why they’re not selling but rentals are declining in availability;
  – The reason why they purchased this was originally to knock down and build there in 5-10 years time. Rent made it a little easier but having a tenant is barely worth it with the associated costs/requirements/risks
  – We now use it (apartment) as a crashpad in the city to avoid traffic or for visiting friends
  – I will sell in a years time once the brightline test is up but I don’t want to sell with a tenant or deal with the issue of evicting them
  
  32 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:01am
- yobi
  
  We sold one of our Auckland rentals mid last year, it is no longer a rental. We have a second one on the market, it is now sitting empty and looks like it is going to sell to an owner occupier. With these sales it will leave us with 11 rentals. The reason for selling are:
  We are taxed on any interest we pay.
  Interest rates are heading up fast.
  Once a property is refurbished you lose the ability to evict a bad tenant on the need to refurbish.
  
  We would rather pay tax on earnings and spend the money on ourselves than struggle having to pay tax on a legitimate business expense.
  And for the people who think we don’t pay tax, our 2021 tax bill was $40k, we also paid around $30k in gst.
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:24am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Are you selling to the Labour Govt? They need houses and can’t build them. They promise to build them but like everything Labour, it turns into a fuckup.
    Plenty of Govt money around – money tree is in the basement of the bee’s nest
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:28pm
    - artemisia
      
      Kainga Ora have specific rules about what they buy or lease. Mind you, those who fit the lease rules can do well, but plenty of anecdotes about disputes with KO.
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:41pm
  - surfing
    
    13 rentals, so, you’ve possibly made 10’s of millions of dollars if you’re in the auckland market.
    
    Nice work. But you really can’t complain too much about tax. I was paying more tax than you because my income was self employed income, not through capital gain.
    
    1 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:13pm
- Random T Person
  
  The developer from whom I bought my house offered me the section next door. He develops for a living and is highly successful. He wants to sell the section because he knows that by the time he finishes building a house on it, he won’t be able to sell the house for appreciably more than the cost of the construction.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:45am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Buy it – retirement asset
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:29pm
Andrew Worth

The coverage of the anti-mandate protest was extraordinarily biased on One last night, the take away being that they are all bad people who are only interested in causing trouble.
The PM supported this by making it clear that if you’re not in her majority you’re not worth listening to.
89 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:07am
- kevn
  
  @Andrew… Ewe TV News. There is the problem.
  arden is very blase about this protest.
  
  57 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:15am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    I’m still waiting on the media to do some investigation as to the whereabouts of Gayford.
    
    52 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 8:34am
    - Inandout
      
      IVV, thanks for reminding me about our foxie..he was on the doorstep a few minutes ago.
      
      21 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:25am
      - artemisia
        
        Foxie back on the porch then.
        
        11 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 10:05am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        IAO, I can safely say that any half decent reporter could have a conversation with certain members of the constabulary and confirm or deny the “rumours” regarding First Man Gayford. If confirmed, then further investigation would be necessary. If denied, nothing to see here. But for some reason, nothing appears to be happening, and it’s not that difficult, as I have asked and received a response.
        
        16 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 10:07am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      What exactly makes it any of the media’s or the public’s business where Gayford is?
      
      2 15
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:39am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Oh for goodness sake Albert old chap, do keep up!
        
        11 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:48am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        So you know – like most of us. Mention it and you are in deep shit
        
        6 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:31pm
      - Scooter
        
        When he attracts public attention by involving himself on behalf of friends by offering incorrect Govt laws ie covid rapid tests for friends. Not to mention the many times he posts comments in media on behalf of the PM.
        
        2 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 8:47pm
    - pdm
      
      IVV – Heard a rumour a couple of days ago from what I would term an informed source but it is only a rumour and I have seen previously the mods do not like them being aired.
      
      Suffice to say if true it does not reflect well on him as New Zealand,s (so called) first man at all – or his fiancee for that matter..
      
      12 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:01pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        pdm, all I am saying is that it should be investigated. It’s not that difficult to find out whether the rumour is true or not. And if it is, it should be investigated further. If the rumour was about say, John Key’s lad, the NZ media, top to bottom, would have been all over it, contacts within NZ Police would have been spoken to, and would have been definitive by now.
        
        7 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:54pm
  - pdm
    
    Kev/Andy – surely you do not expect her to understand what it is all about?
    
    30 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 8:38am
    - mawm
      
      She and Justin are getting orders from the same person. Remember his comment about this massive truck protest being just a few fringe nutters?
      
      6 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:57am
  - Gravelroad
    
    That’s because it has been determined that “they are not us”.
    Now the Prime Minister is spinning that the protesters are “not representative” of our society.
    Except there are thousands of them – not just those who turned up in Wellington.
    In fact, that is the news of this story.
    Thousands of people all over NZ went out and supported the convoys.
    Sure, many of them won’t be founder members of the Jacinda fan club writing letters every week begging for a lock of her hair by return mail.
    But, they are still citizens worthy of a voice.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:46pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  She said the same thing about Tamaki and his lot and Groundswell.
  
  There must be alot of citizens of New Zealand that don’t represent the majority?
  
  42 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:22am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Well apparently there is nobody in parliament out of 120 MPs to represent the substantial number of kiwis who aren’t “anti vax” but are opposed to mandates and passports. How is that possible? Representation? What a joke.
    
    26 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:59am
    - bronny1
      
      And interestingly, having gone to picton for the convoy arrival I met lots of them. It was the biggest mix of demographics I’ve ever seen. All ages, all races (talked to a Czech guy and a German who had left communism and history of racism (respectively)), rich and poor, blue and white collar, families, retired, few ageing hippies
      Strange how the govt and the opposition parties don’t think they represent any of them.
      
      16 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:15pm
      - Nickc2
        
        As I intimated yesterday, this is appalling and the Nats/ACT have gone even further down in my estimation.
        As for the Labour/Green/Maori Parties, it’s par for the course MMO.
        Luxon, the Hope of a Nation? Definitely not yet!
        
        9 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:11pm
      - Clownworld
        
        Well Jacinda the Unkind doesn’t see it that way.
        There are two groups of people
        
        her compliant hostages and fans AND
        
        those that disagree and must be villified, silenced and ultimately convinced to worship at Her altar or die.
        
        5 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:55pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The reporter seemed more concerned with the fact that the protestors weren’t in awe of her and the TV cameras. She did a large moan about journalists getting abused and spent no time at all reporting on the protestors concerns.
  
  70 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:49am
  - Biscuit
    
    Indeed, Maggy.
    
    The whole thing seemed intent on setting her and her ilk up as martyrs.
    
    Anyone not supporting her narrative was written off as getting all their information off social media.
    
    Not a word, natch, that the side of the story she was promoting had been funded, at least in part, by Jacinda’s Media Bribes…
    
    There are plenty of instances of late where the reporter might have said ‘Hmmm, maybe the Jacinda Truth ain’t quite 100% reliable’ but no…
    
    52 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 8:54am
  - John Pakes
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    “weren’t in awe” is a bit of an exaggeration. You are right about the journalists getting abused, you could see some of them in the background venting their spleens and raising their fists. The journalists were asked to move inside as a safety precaution by the security people.
    It would be hard to analyze some of the protestors concerns. Some were about mandates, but just as many seemed to be about communism or Trump, freedom of speech etc etc.
    A quite diverse and confused mob.
    
    6 44
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:21am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It would be hard to analyze some of the protestors concerns.
      
      Well, I would have assumed that was her job… to actually discover and report on the concerns of the protestors…
      
      I had zilch interest in her personal concerns.
      
      I’m sure there must be a reporter or two who are capable of approaching some of the protestors and requesting an interview.
      
      47 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:38am
      - John Pakes
        
        The reporter was not concerned either. She was ordered inside by security.
        
        5 22
        Report
        February 9, 2022 9:51am
      - Andrew Worth
        
        “ordered” inside by security?
        
        16 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 10:57am
    - yobi
      
      John Pakes
      “A quite diverse and confused mob”
      One assumes you are talking about the current government?
      
      19 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:28am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      Pales the “ journalists” were asked to move inside because they were inciting the protesters. Her words not mine. Doesn’t suit the picture you’re attempting to paint but hey it is what it is comrade.
      
      17 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:58am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Why does Pakes get so many downticks?
        Maybe it is his altitude?
        
        4 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:41pm
    - bronny1
      
      I spent a few hours talking to people in and supporting the convoy in Picton. All of them were protesting the overreach of the govt. a proportion were vaxxed, most didn’t say (I didn’t ask), but all those I spoke to were protesting the mandates, many had lost their jobs as a result. All of them are well aware that the mandates were about divisiveness and hate (“yes a two tier society is apex a toy what I’m doing” or whatever she said) not about science or the wellbeing of kiwis.
      
      8 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:18pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yes watched last night in disgust.
    There is something inherently wrong when News reporters refuse to meet protestors.
    Embedded Journalism/reporting showing its true colours.
    
    33 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:02am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Err, the reporters want the truth, not opinions of protestors. It needs to be recorded so the reporters can cherrypick and fuck with it
      
      6 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:43pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Im liking Elon Musk more and more,
    “The Tesla CEO called traditional news outlets ‘a relentless hatestream’”
    https://www.rt.com/news/548715-musk-media-twitter-discussion/
    Pretty hard to argue against logic.
    
    26 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:20am
    - kevn
      
      @MM… Musk was very supportive of the Canadian trucker protest.
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:25am
    - mawm
      
      It is good to see some African-Americans are not knee-jerk Democrat supporters. ; )
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:33pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        The left the ‘plantation’ Candace Owens mentions this often
        
        6 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:46pm
- Maxx
  
  “…if you’re not in her majority you’re not worth listening to”.
  
  Good to see she won’t be listening to The Greens anymore. Or the Maori party. And the last census showed that NZ European are the majority, so only they’re worth listening too?
  
  However this will be a great slogan for ANY party, minor or otherwise, to campaign on next year. Billboards up everywhere. “The PM believes your opinion isn’t worth listening to”
  
  47 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:06am
  - Phronesis
    
    …or Maori in general as they are a small minority of New Zealanders.
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:52am
    - Black with a Vengeance
      
      You seem to be stuck in Old Zealand.
      
      Time for a bright shiny New attitude towards first nation peoples me thinks!
      
      2 8
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:11pm
      - artemisia
        
        Some of those ‘first nation peoples’ could well do with a new attitude. In the late 19th century my hapu split into two fairly distinct lines. One line began to move away, some stayed. The other line mostly stayed.
        
        The ones that mostly stayed have generally turned out very average in the life stakes, not just financially but also in terms of general integrity and soak the whitey. Of the ones that mostly left, independence, education and upskilling was more valued and all that flows from that. Mind you there was quite an exodus from New Zealand over the generations, most to Australia. Their gain.
        
        5 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:50pm
      - Maxx
        
        Everyone that inhabits these islands are immigrants.
        
        3 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 4:11pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yup, your opinion is nothing, but your Labour vote is worth whatever you want promised.
    Hey Jaspinda, a vote is also basically an opinion
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:48pm
- Stellaboxer
  
  Andrew yes I attended the demo and saw nothing but friendly people intent on delivering a not even radical message. One interesting point was when my friend confronted four or five people decked out in Trump flags and MEGA hats by asking them why they were there as Trump wasn’t even someone that we could vote for and they would just give the media an angle to beat the demo with. They couldn’t answer with any coherent response but became visibly nervous! We wondered if their presence was in good faith or something more underhanded who knows!
  
  41 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:06am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Hahah those Trump flag protest people are everywhere. I think they were at groundswell also. Before I sat down in the Domain at my first freedom and rights protest I had many doubts. I thought what if people think I support Destiny church, or support Trump. Whatever. Viva la difference’ It couldn’t be clearer that the connection is we all want the totalitarian mandates removed and our democracy returned.. If Trump supporters also want the mandates removed then good on them. On this issue we are aligned.
    
    14 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:58am
    - curry4me
      
      Surely Knott: Yes it’s a pretty diverse team the F&R crowd. Ditto for Groundswell.
      
      1 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 5:28pm
  - cjn
    
    Tucker Carlson last night talked about Marxists. “Workers of the World Unite” is their slogan but if the workers do that the Marxists don’t want to listen to them. Carlson was talking about Canada but the same applies in New Zealand. The arrogance of politicians is breathtaking.
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:23pm
    - curry4me
      
      cjn: Yeah that was a prescient rematk from Tucker.
      
      2 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 5:29pm
    - Jim
      
      I know it’s just a fringe movement. Oops Trudope
      
      Any such conceited comment by Ardern?
      
      Funny thing is I’m sure (if framed the right way) many normal people don’t support vaccine mandates, especially now Omicron has cut the covid lunch.
      
      1 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 7:00pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Watched the 3News version where the visuals clearly mismatched the “underplay” verbals. Wondering whose more gullible these days – the population or the MSM/presenters – starting to think the latter.
  
  34 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:08am
- mandk
  
  When I read that Ardern said the protesters did not have majority support, my immediate though was: neither do you, dear.
  
  53 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:24am
  - Cinematic
    
    Quite. Ms Jacinda speaks for ‘us’ far too often.
    
    25 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:43am
- Surely Knott
  
  True. On the alternative media though there is so much love and community growing. 62,000 people on the convoy facebook page. Someone offered their farm for the entire convoy to stop at, another post this morning offering anyone who is travelling south from the protest a couple of beds, a hot shower and a cooked breakfast. It is filled with posts like this.. There is a massive outpouring of generosity. People saying this is who NZ is and that they feel proud to be a kiwi again. That they don’t feel alone. It’s people from all walks of life, poor and rich, european and Maori and all ethnicities, rural and urban. They may not have the majority of numbers in NZ but something special is happening.
  
  36 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:31am
- Ra Henare
  
  Some interesting thorts re ACC.
  
  As all injuries go through this single department, ACC knows more about vaccine injury than any other sector of our government or society at large. The avalanche of claims (which could top 100,000 if the government were to admit liability) and their severity has shocked ACC staff to such an extent that a great many staff members are rightfully concerned that they should not be compelled to vaccinate or boost.
  
  https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/opinion/what-came-unstuck-in-new-zealand-lessons-for-the-world/
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:33pm
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    Followed your link; lots of assertions, not so much hard evidence, then got to the end and discovered the author also wrote“Your DNA Diet: Leveraging the Power of Consciousness To Heal Ourselves and Our World. An Ayurvedic Blueprint For Health and Wellness’.” Hmmm.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 6:19pm
    - bennerg
      
      Kiwi Dave,
      
      Einstein, without argument, one of our greatest scientists wrote about far more than just physics: see list below.
      
      Having an interest in, and being able to have a discourse in such matters of life as the spirit, medicine etc, shows how well rounded this individual is.
      
      The Cosmic View of Albert Einstein: Writings on Art, Science, and Peace
      
      Religion and Science
      
      On Cosmic Religion and Other Opinions and Aphorisms
      
      On Peace
      
      Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
      
      Essays in Humanism
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 10, 2022 3:54pm
Maggy Wassilieff

So is one of the consequences of our country’s lockdowns going to be a severe influenza outbreak?

“Throughout the surveillance period hospital-based severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) incidence rates also remained very low compared to historical rates seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Similarly, Europe also saw less of the virus last year due to health measures in place for COVID-19.

However, when it began reopening in the latter months of 2021 – before closing back up again due to Omicron – influenza was found at a higher-than-expected rate. Forty-three cases were recorded in Europe’s ICUs in the last week of the year, far below pre-pandemic rates of 400, but a substantial increase from earlier in the month.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/covid-19-jacinda-ardern-outlines-how-new-zealand-is-preparing-for-winter-warns-of-new-different-variants-influenza-s-return.html
41 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:09am
- oldfella
  
  Maggy, perhaps Cindy could draw on her knowledge of medicine and pandemics to explain what she means when she warns of different variants on the way?
  Which ones? Will they be worse than Delta? Omicron? Do we need to get boosted with the relatively mild Omicron now while we can?
  So many questions. Such an inept local media.
  
  12 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:30am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Jaspinda has this working group who advise her of things she knows nothing about – which means most things
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:51pm
    - riffer
      
      who is Jaspinda?
      
      1 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 7:59pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Oh, I’m impressed..
    
    Our Dear PM is now aware that viruses mutate.
    
    Gee, I wonder who filled in to that rather obvious fact.
    
    Perhaps she needs to revise her September 2021 statement that vaccination would be our Golden ticket to freedom.
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300416052/covid19-live-pm-jacinda-ardern-says-vaccination-is-the-golden-ticket-to-freedom
    
    3 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 6:33pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      OMG. Just imagine having to change policies as circumstances change. Seems to me like the government should have had one plan two years ago and not deviated from it in any respect.
      
      1 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 6:44pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Our Dear PM should have twigged months ago that a very leaky vaccine was Not a golden ticket.
        
        3 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 7:57pm
Yvette

Government eyes ambulance sector shake-up as funding, staffing issues plague St John
The charity runs the majority of New Zealand’s ambulance service, but has been struggling with response times amid massive demand for its services.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/ambulance-sector-shake-up-on-the-cards-as-funding-staffing-issues-plague-st-john.html

1 – Ardern’s Government has had two years of pandemic to think about this, or to even do something

2 – Of disgraced ex-Health Minister David Clack – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time she normally would have fired Clark but that the country couldn’t afford massive disruption in its health sector while it was fighting the virus. Instead, she stripped Clark of his role as associate finance minister and demoted him to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings. [1]
“We need as a country, as a government, as a Cabinet, to be totally focused on our Covid response. Anything regardless of origin – anything that acts as an unnecessary distraction to that, we just simply couldn’t afford. [2]

So to avoid any massive disruption in the health sector, Ardern is now allowing Andrew Little (Minister of Health, but almost absent in the covid response) to totally restructure the health sector – to demolish twenty DHBs and replace them with two entities, one being a Maori Health Authority, reputed to rule them all –
when we “couldn’t afford massive disruption”
Now the Coup d’etat will be the ambulance service.

3 – This is suggested on the eve of an Omicron outbreak that should sweep the nation.

4 – The ambulance service “has been struggling with response times amid massive demand for its services” so now, facing an even more massive demand, it seems as delicate and inadequate as having 108 ICU beds available nation wide and in some areas, like the West Coast, none available at all – again, after two years.

5 – And for the nation’s mental wellbeing the timing of any Ambulance Service restructure, “consolidation” (like RATs ordering deficiency) is another Little disaster.
Some accuse the Government of fear-mongering, and Yes, there may be reasons to be collectively fearful, not just of covid (especially for the elderly and health compromised), but fear of this Government and their Saviour Maleficent (Google images and compare …)

[1] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/zealands-health-minister-resigns-virus-blunders-71568392
[2] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/420312/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-on-david-clark-s-resignation-as-health-minister-it-is-one-i-agree-with

Silver Lining – Will Andrew Little have to pause massively restructuring the Health Sector, in order to do a quick massive restructure of the Ambulance Service?
34 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:09am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  How many Saint John’s staff have left and not been replaced.
  
  A drop in staffing at a time of increased demand, what genius thinks that is a good idea.
  
  24 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:34am
  - bronny1
    
    I seem to recall it was about 400? Or was that volunteer fire fighters?
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:24pm
- pdm
  
  `Silver Lining – Will Andrew Little have to pause massively restructuring the Health Sector, in order to do a quick massive restructure of the Ambulance Service?’
  
  The likelihood of Angry Andy doing even one thing at a time is very unlikely.
  
  25 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:40am
Mr_Blobby

Not to sure what’s happening in New Zealand as I don’t keep up to date with the latest propaganda from the ministry of misinformation.

But it does seem to look around the World that the wheels are falling off the covid fear train.

Protests are growing just about everywhere, not that we would see that here.

More and more governments are renouncing covid.

In some places, open and fair, democracies the blame game has started, the covid high priests are renouncing the covid inquisition and running for cover.

The tyrants are looking more and more isolated.

The economic and social costs are becoming starkly more apparent.

People are demanding their freedom and privacy back.
61 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:13am
- Clownworld
  
  Yes protests are increasing worldwide at the same time most countries are removing some restrictions.
  
  The price though is not all freedoms are being returned. Uncertainty and fear, comply or lose rights or die is still the same mantra.
  
  On top of which the totalatarian framework is being implemented everywhere to every country and to as many individuals on the planet as possible.
  
  China is already in lock step via social credit. Their population is in a giant jail already.
  India is moving to digital control next, watch their Modi remove physical currency soon.
  The great deception has started, the tyrants have a common thread… claim diversity and unity while actually doing the opposite to divide and conquer all to bring in the humanist ideal, a benevolent charismatic dictator who will usher in peace and prosperity. Macron is one who openly admits to want to do this,involving homself to solve the engineered tension between Russia and Europe.
  
  We live in interesting times.
  
  23 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:16am
- curry4me
  
  Mr_Blobby: I wonder how long it’ll be before ACT gives up on the vaxx your kids, and wear a mask routine?
  
  12 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:49am
  - bythesea
    
    ACT are usually quite good at pivoting in the face of new data. How come they haven’t changed their message in the face of omicron? It’s clear what has happened in other countries.
    
    Are they waiting for the peak to arrive and pass?
    
    12 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:28am
    - Clownworld
      
      Luxon and Seymour are awaiting orders from their Masters. Same masters as Ardern.
      
      12 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:59pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        No please. Those two already fucked NZ over 3 times
        
        4 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:56pm
Tony Stuart

The Speaker has Spoken; Trevor Mallard has pulled rank, and demanded that the Freedom protestors who camped on the lawn at Parliament last night pack up and go.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/02/trevor-mallard-orders-anti-mandate-protesters-to-remove-tents-or-face-trespass-from-parliament-grounds.html

Mallard is threatening the protestors with trespass notices if they do not comply with his command. I fear that Mallard may have unintentionally inflamed the situation, but then again cynics would probably argue that inflaming the situation was precisely his intention.
74 5
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:22am
- kowtow
  
  A tale of two protests.
  
  Compare and contrast the media’s coverage of these protests , be they Ottawa , Wellington or Melbourne to their sympathetic indeed approving coverage of the extreme left crim hugging BLM protests.
  
  51 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:28am
  - riffer
    
    How many BLM protestors camped overnight at parliament?
    
    1 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 8:00pm
- emmess
  
  Oh so now they oppose land occupations? (not that I would categorise the protest as an occupation)
  I go past the Parnell Rose Garden once in a while and there has been a protest camped out there for at least a year now.
  
  43 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:33am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  So the growing ranks of the homeless and rough sleepers are encroaching on parliament.
  
  He should start dishing out a few trespass notices in aucklands queen street, that is overun with homeless people.
  
  37 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:39am
- pdm
  
  `unintentionally’
  
  Inv surely you jest. The Despicable Mallard is noted for inflaming situations and I bet this is all planned.
  
  46 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:43am
  - mawm
    
    Expect the ham-handed Nazi flag, the false white supremacists, alleged assaults, etc. Jacinda should just ask Justin to email her a copy of his dishonest tirade against the truckies.
    
    I might just send a bouncy castle down to Wellington. //
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:48pm
- westernScientest
  
  lol grumpy old man yelling “get of my lawn”
  
  33 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:56am
  - nathie
    
    And “get off my $500k playground slide”!
    
    23 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:36am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      I thought the playground was for the sole use of the first child.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 3:22pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  ” inflaming the situation was precisely his intention”
  Tony – I think your overrating his intellectual powers – he’s really just a “street smart scrapper” and someones in his patch.
  
  21 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:19am
  - kowtow
    
    “street smart scrapper”
    
    aka ‘thug’.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:44am
    - 70andstilllearning
      
      can’t do multiple tick emojis on the desktop kt – bit obsolete like me at times – but you get the my drift. 🙂
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:46pm
- Clownworld
  
  Some protests are more equal than others?
  
  Allowed.
  Land marches.
  Ihumato.
  BLM.
  Criminals gathering at schools, maraes and displaying their patches.
  
  Not allowed
  People advocating for their freedom back after being penalised for not submitting their bodies for something ineffective at best and potentially more risky than the benefits?
  People protesting against abortion.
  People advocating that biological men and women are different.
  
  You see at heart freedom is constrained by those in power. Your opinions, thoughts, values and beliefs are being eroded until it is easier to stay quiet or simply sllow your br
  ain to be washed.
  
  The most washed part of the world’s population in 2020 wasn’t the hands it was the brain.
  2021 rinse and repeat.
  2022 new crisis rinse and repeat.
  2023 ????
  
  50 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:26am
  - nathie
    
    “2023 ????”
    
    Looking at the recent political polls, Labour’s support seems about equal with those that think Labour are “doing a good job with covid” and also “want the borders kept shut”.
    
    In other words, expect to Labour milking covid as much as possible in 2023 and all the way up to the election = “new, new crisis rinse and repeat.”!!!
    
    19 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:40am
    - Clownworld
      
      Covid can only be stretched so far. As Doc Gates said the next “one” will be worse.
      
      15 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:00am
      - kevn
        
        @Clown… Gates seems quite enthusiastic about the idea doesn’t he?
        
        11 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:27am
      - bronny1
        
        [deleted by Mod, fake crap]
        
        0 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:27pm
      - Clownworld
        
        @kevn Yep that’s what it is.
        
        2 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:00pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    The standard for denouncing a protest action as “unacceptable” or other rhetorical tactics intended to deflect from the action’s motivation, is the extent to which the protestors and their cause challenges the authority of the government. None of the ostensibly popular protests of recent years have challenged the power structure in any significant sense, and in fact, have generally aligned with the ideological thrust of the power structure. In other words, the right to assemble and speak freely is wholly contingent upon the views of the authorities, and the right is only challenged if it poses a threat to the government’s legitimate exercise of power. If the cause seeks to force the government to bend the knee to the will of the people, then it must be discredited and repudiated (preferably without any reference to the justification for and validity of the cause), because acquiescence will undermine the state’s authority. Any back down and change of policy cannot be perceived as having been imposed on the state, it must rather be seen as having been done at the will of the state.
    
    The state’s authority is founded on and follows from the presence of two conditions:
    
    1) An ability and willingness to enforce the law;
    
    2) The population’s perception that the government possesses sufficient legitimacy to govern (i.e. it has credibility).
    
    If either of these conditions are absent, then the state loses it’s authority. Thus, anything that undermines either of these poses a serious threat and therefore cannot be allowed and/or accepted.
    
    19 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:05pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Beautifully and articulately said, wish I could give you more than one up-tick.
      
      8 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:35pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Agreed.
        
        All: Pin any 2nd or third upticks to these replies.
        
        6 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:05pm
    - Clownworld
      
      Or perhaps simply… ” Absolute power corrupts absolutely”
      
      6 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:02pm
    - Black with a Vengeance
      
      Our state has no inherent authority to govern other than by royal decree and the population is largely ignorant to the fact its legitimate claims to sovereignty, as defined by the Treaty, are still in dispute.
      
      Every NZ government knows this and always feels threatened, but not enough to do anything about it bar change the laws to maintain their power when things look to undermine their authority.
      
      The alternative is unacceptable and will not be allowed.
      
      2 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:28pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Jacinda said as much in Parliament at the opening of Parliament yesterday. “There will be more variants this year” almost as if she knows something we don’t.
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:38pm
    - mawm
      
      Just giving Dr William Gates some free advertising for his upcoming book “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic’.
      https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/704751/how-to-prevent-the-next-pandemic-by-bill-gates/
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 5:24pm
- oldfella
  
  Tony: I think the protesters should simply erect signs proclaiming that Parliament stands on sacred Maori land which they are reclaiming for the people. And they will stay till their demands are met, and Cindy comes out and publicly supports them.
  Worked at Ihumatao. /s
  
  28 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:36am
  - Clownworld
    
    And the desecration of all those politicians
    “Working” whilst simply creating hot air above sacred ground needs to be accounted for.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:04pm
- curry4me
  
  Tony Stuart: Maybe the protesters could say something like this: OK, we’ll pack up, and leave. But, we won’t accept any work delivering stuff to Wellington.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:51am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “unintentionally?’
  Nice satire. The duck had this all planned from before the start of the convoy even
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:00pm
dcrane

Incredibly disappointing to see so many in National support this odious conversion therapy bill:

“Primarily, he said, he was concerned it could criminalise parents or caregivers speaking with their children about these issues, for example where they might be considering medical interventions as part of a gender transition.

“We are talking about potentially life-changing medical procedures,” Goldsmith said, comparing it to discussions around people donating kidneys.

Goldsmith would introduce supplementary order papers requesting clarity.”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/bill-to-ban-conversion-therapy-passes-second-reading-just-seven-national-mps-now-opposed/FP2A6DUHGQU7DHVWWOT5VRHCDA/
26 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:26am
- Phronesis
  
  Much like the vaccine mandate the real issue is the precedent that is being created. If criminalising certain forms of speech and religious beliefs is now considered appropriate by the vast majority of MP’s on both sides of the house then we can only wonder what other thought crimes will be next. And we can be certain there will be more, just as there will be more mandates.
  
  16 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:07am
  - Clownworld
    
    Freedom is fragile. Watching it dissolve now.
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:06pm
I remember when

PM Ardern’s message to NZ on anti-mandate convoy: “They’re not the majority.”
Is that the 44.5% against 44.3% poll?
48 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:28am
- Raphael
  
  https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/pm-ardern-s-message-to-nz-on-anti-mandate-convoy-they-re-not-the-majority/ar-AATAwdr?ocid=msedgntp reading this our Glorious Leader says:
  
  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has sent a message to vaccinated New Zealanders after anti-mandate protesters descended on Parliament: that these people aren’t representative of the majority of Kiwis and “this too will pass”.
  
  Is our Glorious Leader so deluded that she actually thinks that just because someone got vaccinated they are supportive of the mandates?
  
  30 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:40am
  - Jim
    
    On point, I’m been coercively vaccinated, but I’m not doing any more. I’m so ashamed of NZ at this moment in time.
    Wake up parents and grandparents, Pfizer are pursuing EUA for under 5s now, get that! Even 6 month old healthy babies! Crazy and corrupt politicised FDA.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:15pm
- Wayne Mapp
  
  That poll wasn’t about the mandates, it was about whether the govt had prepared enough for Omicron.
  
  5 11
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:50am
I remember when

Once again the media concentrate on the fact that many supporting the convoy – don’t know what they want.
No they don’t.
The convoy in fact, as the media know full well, represents a groundswell of the population that have just had one mandate too many.
Then just to show their determination to make the point they select a collection of oddball comments.
I wonder if the first off camera question is, “Do you buy the daily paper or watch TV?”
40 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:34am
Loddenthinks

It’s difficult to overstate how pathetic and desperate the MSM is, in particular $1uffed, regarding the genuine concerns many have over jabbing young students. Lead article in the lefty rag this morning – “Anti-vaxxers target primary schools with extreme messages”

A billboard was parked in what was described as a “provocative” position, whatever that is, and principals in North Canterbury have said that schools were “not the time and place” for it, and that people “shouldn’t be putting children at the centre of your protest”. Excuse my cynicism regarding involving schoolkids in protests, you indoctrinaire hypocrites.

Apart from pimping schoolkids to try and stop school closures in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, which they did dozens of times, in 2019 50,000 teachers walked off the job – the third such strike action since Ardern was anointed by the Great Charlatan. One of their demands was (and I’m not making this up) “more respect” – they’re prepared to ignore the children they’re paid to educate in order to feather their own nest, but they want respect?

The $1uff article showed a picture of the “extreme” messages being shown – a placard saying “Check out New Zealand Doctors NZDSOS.COM” Yep, it really was that extreme. They even published a complaint to the Council that the mobile billboard was parked with one tyre over the painted line, which the Council rightly ignored, as did the police when complaints were made that “the billboard might scare children”. Yes, this from a rag that’s been scaring the bejesus out of schoolkids for years, over Covid, “climate change” and most recently telling them that everything wrong with this country is because they’re white.
65 4
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:38am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Don’t forget the teachers union sending kids home with vote Labour propaganda. That was always one of my favorites.
  
  I think the “bad” one they were talking about was saying that kids have died from the vaccine and they said that Omicron has serious consequences for kids. My understanding is that most kids barely get effected by Omicron. Kids are only getting the jab to protect adults.
  
  37 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:53am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    “Kids are only getting the jab to protect adults” – how can that be? I thought the adults were all vaccinated, so how can they be at risk from their children.
    
    It’s almost as if the jabs don’t work, but that can’t be true!
    
    30 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:45am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    To protect the adult’s insecurity?
    There is that fear porn again…..
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:14pm
- graham
  
  Loddenthinks: Sadly, I think what you describe above is becoming increasingly common in the media – not just in New Zealand, but throughout the Western world. Media neutrality, impartiality, and lack of bias seem to be quaint old-fashioned concepts these days, viewed by modern journalists in much the same way that they might look at quill and ink. “You mean, people actually USED those? How quaint. But so terribly old-fashioned.”
  
  Small wonder that almost one year ago, a study revealed that fewer than half of all Americans acknowledge any kind of trust in the mainstream media, and fifty-six percent of Americans said they agreed with the following statement: “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.”
  
  “False or gross exaggerations” – that line could have been written specifically to rebut the Stuff article.
  
  26 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:01am
  - John Pakes
    
    Yep, quite right.
    Seems that most Americans are savvy enough to understand that the American media is driven by profit, and not the facts.
    Take Fox news as an example.
    
    4 26
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:35am
    - kevn
      
      @jpakes…. Or, take CNN for example. Dead on its feet.
      
      24 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:50am
      - John Pakes
        
        And half of America will trust CNN, and half will not.
        
        4 29
        Report
        February 9, 2022 9:53am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Half of the US?
        hahahahahahaha
        Less than 500,000 people watch CNN. It rates less than old cooking shows!
        
        30 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 10:00am
      - kevn
        
        @jpakes… CNN has lost 90% of its viewers from a year ago. Which half is that?
        
        29 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 10:04am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        @jpakes, half of America trust CNN John? Joe Rogan has more people watching his podcast than watch CNN prime time. Its about 11 million to 500k. So I think half is an exaggeration, try less than 10%.
        And as an FYI, Fox prime time has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined and hilariously, Tucker Carlson is, according to Nielsen/MRI Fusion, the number one most-watched show among Democrats in the key demographic of 25-54 year-olds!!
        
        23 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 10:17am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @jpakes – is there no hole too big, into which you will not dive with enthusiasm?
        
        Asking for a friend.
        
        9 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:29pm
      - mawm
        
        IVV – It is pointless arguing facts with a lefty; everything is about “feelz”.
        
        6 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:07pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        @Loddenthinks, one of the unabashed delights in visiting Kiwiblog is to witness exemplary self immolation in the form of commentary by ‘John Pakes’. I shouldn’t enjoy this, but I do. It is a guilty pleasure.
        
        9 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:14pm
    - Salacious Crumb
      
      And the 90% drop in CNN viewership which suggests people know bullshit when they see it. Take away the government largesse and see how Stuff et al survive.
      
      26 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:52am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Yes, Fox News is very profitable.
      Top 20 shows?
      Even Democrats are trusting Fox to get their news
      https://www.thewrap.com/tucker-carlson-liberal-viewership-fox-news/
      Possibly because they cover stories like this;
      https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mail-in-voting-ballots-struck-down-pennsylvania/
      https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/17/wisconsin-judge-bans-ballot-drop-boxes-says-election-officials-broke-the-law/
      
      22 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:57am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      CNN as well? Opps
      
      3 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 3:15pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Oooops*
        
        0 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:19pm
- kowtow
  
  A tale of two vandalisms
  
  Compare and contrast the Media Pardy coverage of so called “anti vax” vandalism to their approving coverage of BLM and other extreme left vandalism of statues etc
  
  48 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:10am
- graham
  
  And distrust in the media is increasing.
  
  The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer reported that globally, 59% of respondents agreed with the statement “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.”
  
  In 2022, that figure has increased to 67%. (Page 15)
  
  Think about that. Two-thirds of people around the world believe that journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people. That’s the majority of respondents. And this isn’t some piddling little survey – this is 36,000 respondents across 28 countries. How do these journalists and reporters not understand this?
  
  I wonder if they choose to ignore these reports and figures in case they get “triggered”?
  
  32 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:25am
- John Pakes
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  You are avoiding the point of the article. Read it again.
  The billboard that is being towed around by the ute has the message that children are dying because of the vaccine.
  That is a lie.
  The teachers are quite right. Their students should not be exposed to lies that could create fear and mistrust in them.
  
  6 36
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:27am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    “Their students should not be exposed to lies that could create fear and mistrust in them” – do you mean such as critical race theory and man-made climate change?
    
    And if you think no child has died from the experimental jabs I have several bridges to sell you.
    
    26 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 9:59am
  - alloytoo
    
    I assume that the teachers will also be calling for a halt to government advertising that suggests the children will die (or get seriously ill) without the vaccine?
    
    Both messages are hyperbole.
    
    But in respect of the risk profile of children, the UTE message is “More” truthful.
    
    15 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:09am
  - graham
    
    “Their students should not be exposed to lies that could create fear and mistrust in them” – oh, you mean like the widely reported claims that we could have 50,000 daily Omicron infections by Waitangi weekend?
    
    I have just checked the Ministry of Health website. The absolute worst number of cases I can find is 18,253 cases as of today. Do you know what that number is? That’s the total number of cases since the very first NZ case – almost two years ago. The current total of active cases is 2,880 – less than 6% of that fearless prediction.
    
    And nobody, as far as I know, has apologised for the madness that saw the fear ramped up when this number was predicted. No, all the officials are interested in is butt-covering; explaining why that number was ever-so-slightly incorrect, and why this time they’ve got it right – “honest, we really have this time” – and why we should trust them.
    
    I think many people would agree that “students should not be exposed to lies that could create fear and mistrust in them”. The problem is, just who is promulgating these lies John?
    
    19 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:41am
    - Batman
      
      As usual, success of public health measures and high vaccination rates is actually a giant failure? Got it.
      
      Models are models based on a scenario. That one was based on overseas experiences, which is fairly reasonable approach given it hadn’t yet caught hold here.
      
      It seems our high vaccination rates and sensible use of masks and gathering limits are keeping Omicron dampened down.
      
      Though the approach of ‘drag it out for months at a low level’ is not ideal.
      
      3 21
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:09am
      - alloytoo
        
        “It seems our high vaccination rates and sensible use of masks and gathering limits are keeping Omicron dampened down.”
        
        Rather people’s sensible lack of testing.
        
        12 4
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:21am
      - Batman
        
        That’s possible! Entirely possible.
        
        Though it doesn’t seem to be born out in the real world yet. If it was, we would all know people who are sick and probably have it ourselves.
        
        Has anyone here got what seems suspiciously like the spicy cough? That will be a genuinely interesting measure.
        
        4 8
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:38am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Being vaccinated doesnt stop you from getting Omicron which should still show up in testing so theres that…
        As for masks, most wear cloth ones- which are useless.
        A couple of things which might explain it- I have yet to meet anyone who said they would get tested.
        Also- there is an argument (which has merit) that NZ has natural mitigators which have helped us.
        As to your questions, yes, I have had a cold, and so has a number of people I know.
        None of us bothered with testing.
        I suspect most out there would not even know they have had it.
        
        12 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:10pm
      - bronny1
        
        You mean like how the high rate of vaccinations in Israel is causing their death rate to be higher than in 2020 when we only had the bad strains of covid?
        
        12 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:37pm
      - Batman
        
        Variants change. Thanks for your fantastic argument in favour of public health measures combatting the spread of Omicron. Clearly it should be taken seriously bronny!
        
        3 11
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:38pm
      - alloytoo
        
        “Though it doesn’t seem to be born out in the real world yet. If it was, we would all know people who are sick and probably have it ourselves.”
        
        Most Omicron infections are asymptomatic, especially if you’re vaccinated.
        
        So you may well have it, you may well be over it, and that mild scratch throat that you’ve forgotten about was it.
        
        As for people who are slightly more crook, they’re not exactly going to advertise it if they’re not planning to get tested.
        
        All they have to do is keep a low profile for a week.
        
        7 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:36pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    The vaccines are not zero risk. They do indeed result in the deaths of a very small number of people, children included, that is not debatable.
    
    And there are known damages being done by vaccines as well – which may be less than those from unvaccinated covid – at least non-omicron variants.
    
    There are also unknown (and as yet unknowable) risks eg possibility of long term heightened cancer risk or other issues.
    
    For kids without comorbidities risk of death from non-omicron covid is less than 1 in a million.
    
    Precautionary principle (and first, do no harm!) suggests that without significant benefit we should not vaccinate kids – a conclusion that many countries have now drawn. And most certainly we should not be vaccinating kids for the benefit of geriatrics – the ethics of that are abominable, we do not sacrifice children (or anyone) for other’s benefit.
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:28pm
G152

Parliaments lawn is a public space.
Mallard should duck
46 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:41am
- alex Masterley
  
  Some-one should build a mai-mai there.
  
  28 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:26am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Waste of time. All the guns have been handed in
    
    3 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:25pm
- RalphT
  
  Duck? Or duck off….
  
  17 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:29am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  From labour’s perspective the protesters are (mostly) the wrong colour and so not deserving of the right to protest or be heard.
  
  23 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:29am
Surely Knott

If the plan is for the majority of people to increasingly live in high density cities, eat and socialise in crowded urban environments, put our kids in large daycares, and elderly in large retirement homes, and take busy public transport. Then we obviously are going to have more disease spread. As they get ready to push more town planning rules on us, is this why the urgency around flu/covid vaccines. Agenda 21/30’s Achille’s heel is disease spread.
21 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:43am
Andrei

Good ol’ Stuff providing good value for the money they receive courtesy of the Taxpayer (you) from their Public Interest Journalism Grant
Anti-vaxxers target primary schools with ‘extreme’ messages

Is there anything of substance in the linked story?

Or is it just all just unsubstantiated innuendo from unnamed sources?

You decide but in these days of the ubiquitous cell phone camera you would think some imagery of “extremism” would be available to illustrate this article about these supposed crazies
28 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:45am
oc35

https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8892-nz-national-voting-intention-january-2022-202202072332?fbclid=IwAR1AMN3Q-TCPYDUZdPS7SfRnv0PF8G6k-mi19dcCrXImwdvERe4srJKLzfU
15 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:46am
- RichardF
  
  The headline on the Herald yesterday screamed ‘left block well ahead’. Not in this poll! Obviously not all the polls can be correct and RM ones get little attention because the media use different companies, but there is definitely a momentum change happening, slowly but surely.
  
  23 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:37am
  - oldfella
    
    Richard, this new poll showing that the right block is actually the grouping well ahead will be today’s headline in all our MSM. Guarantee it. /s
    
    12 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:43am
  - Raphael
    
    The Roy Morgan gets little attention because it is very volatile (it’s a yo-yo) and compared to actual election results is often way off.
    
    So while I do like what their latest says, I don’t trust it.
    
    13 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 10:48am
    - curry4me
      
      Raphael: You’re right. What used to be called the Colmar-Brunton poll is as accurate, and consistent as it gets.
      
      7 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 10:59am
Maggie Pie

-1
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:53am
kevn

@Lodden… The messy trail left behind really is shocking.
6 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:00am
Reid

Here’s a site to keep an eye on for those skeptical of the claims of the “anti-vaxxers.”

This guy is an ex-Blackrock fund manager who retired early to Maui, and he’s been flagging what the markets are doing with respect to life insurance and funeral coys in the US.

Both of those industries are reporting now for Q3/4 21 and their results are stunning. They are all showing marked increases in deaths amongst working-age (18-64) policy holders, compared to their results pre-Covid.

Life insurance these days is a fairly precise actuarial science, so to have deviations of this magnitude means something is up, and the timing of these rises coincides precisely with the beginning of the vax campaign over there in Feb 21.

This is one of his most recent posts, showing the variation in death claims.

Unum $UNM +36%
Lincoln $LNC +57%
Pru $PRU +41%
$RGA +21%
Hartford $HIG +32%
MetLife $MET +24%
Principal Financial Group $PFG +37%

Remember, this is the market saying this, in its reports, so they’re not wrong, the data is the data. For some reason, healthy working age people are dropping dead in significant numbers, and this is happening across the board, it’s not just one company’s results, it’s all of them. And like I said, the timing exactly coincides with the vax campaign, and it didn’t happen in 2021, so it’s not covid that’s doing it.

https://gettr.com/user/edwarddowd
30 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:08am
- Reid
  
  “it didn’t happen in 2021…” – I meant 2020. Sorry.
  
  18 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:21am
- mawm
  
  I’d like to see their “dreaded diseases” (heart disease and cancer usually, probably neurodegenerative diseases incl in that group) claims as well. I bet they are sky-rocketing.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:20pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Ahh, Maui. Lovely place. Have fond memories of Lahaina Town, in fact, looked at a couple of places there. Could have kept Mick Fleetwood company and jammed with him at his restaurant!
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:33pm
slightlyrighty

Congratulations to Jacinda Ardern for the most environmentally friendly PM’s statement on the opening of Parliament ever.

She just recycled her speech from 2018…
38 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:09am
- alloytoo
  
  Quick, line her up with a wind turbine.
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:10am
Ruahine

Just been watching some of the media dialogue from the US and Canadian ‘News” channels. You just have to wonder about anything we are told by them.
I urge you to have a listen to this item from Andrew Bolt about the supposed murder of over 200 children at a church school in Canada which was widely reported.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egbXE18omy0&ab_channel=SkyNewsAustralia
20 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:16am
- Raphael
  
  I saw an article about this one. the researcher who made the claims didn’t do an actual dig and the Ground Penetrating Radar that was used can’t discern between tree roots or bones (and the supposed site is in an orchard)
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:49am
  - Raphael
    
    I found the article I read: https://www.dailywire.com/news/remember-the-hundreds-of-childrens-remains-found-at-a-canadian-residential-school-that-narrative-may-be-collapsing?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=benshapiro
    
    But Canadian journal The Dorchester Review is now questioning the discovery, seven months after the remains were reported. Professor Jacques Rouillard, professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Montreal, wrote in the journal that the anthropologist who discovered the remains, Beaulieu, is young and has been “an instructor in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of the Fraser Valley since 2018.”
    
    “Her preliminary report is actually based on depressions and abnormalities in the soil of an apple orchard near the school – not on exhumed remains,” Rouillard wrote.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:20pm
- kowtow
  
  Bolt can be watched during the week on Sky .
  
  If you don’t have a subscription he has a podcast for free .
  
  How in the hell have we nothing like him here.
  
  There are a few blogs , thanks DPF , and karl du fresne , cactus kate , BB and H but nothing mainstream as it were on tv . Hosking perhaps on radio but how big is the audience.
  
  back to Bolt , anyone surprised that the lefties keep trying to get him cancelled or put pressure on sky’s advertisers to dump him.
  
  Very scary times.
  
  17 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:04am
Tauhei Notts

Covid 19.
I commented two days ago about a couple of curlers; they were not in the novice grade at Idaburn Dam; they were in the Winter Olympics. Not only that; they won gold medals. But the significant part is that they were both suffering from that so called deadly disease Covid-19.
I flick amongst several Tv news channels and read widely, but have seen no comment on that extraordinary achievement on any NZ news site.
I am getting the impression that Covid-19 is the greatest hoax visited upon the peoples of our country.
36 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:16am
- kowtow
  
  Any update on how many of the Warriors are in ICU ?
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:50am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘Curling’ is what Jaspinda does. Uni Degree in Comms you know. It means ‘word soup’ Bend and twist is curling ……..
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:36pm
Rusty

So the PM has said hundreds of deaths are “expected” to occur due to the 4 month outbreak of Omicron.

Did she not say in January Omicron was less deadlier than Delta?

How many Nzers have died of Delta/covid 19 in the last 2 years — 50 or so people and even then what was the health status of many of these people before dying of covid?

After Chris Hipkins said out of his own mouth to Mike Hoskings last week that he was skeptical of covid modelling numbers — who then told the PM hundreds of Nzers are “expected” to die of Omicron?

For Jacinda Ardern to keep up the fear and scaremongering talk of “expected” deaths after 2 years of covid as a reason to get Kiwis jabbed up to their eye balls with booster vaccines — must make you wonder — does she have any intentions of ending the covid scare this year?
39 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:31am
- Cinematic
  
  Until National grows some comic sans balls and says enough of this shit it will continue.
  
  What are National (and Act) afraid of?
  
  17 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 9:49am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Our Dear PM told us vaxxed folk the omicron variant will give us a mild to moderate illness that we can manage at home…
  
  .. because of vaccinations, for most people it will be a mild to moderate illness that you can manage at home”.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/127622391/covid19-nz-is-it-really-a-good-idea-to-call-omicron-mild
  
  21 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:12am
- kowtow
  
  Hundreds of people will die in the normal course of events anyway , if they die with the Batfu , as well they might if 20 % and more of us have it , then the Media Pardy will breathlessly report that as the cause of death , whether they were already in palliative care etc
  
  12 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:53am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “does she have any intentions of ending the covid scare this year?”
  Nope, it is long term to the ELECTION.
  Votes votes votes votes, is all that is important
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:39pm
Yvette

Govt seeks overseas trees to meet Paris climate pledge
The Government expects to meet up to two thirds of its Paris target with offshore emissions reductions.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/govt-seeks-overseas-trees-to-meet-paris-climate-pledge

Ardern’s Labourless Government not only kicks the carbon can down the road, but into someone else’s backyard.
Our “nuclear moment” – like the nuclear waste problem, sequestering carbon in trees transports the problem in to the future when those trees, if not turned into buildings or furniture (to kick the can further down the road) will end their road either rotting (as slash on Tolaga Bay beaches) or pulped into paper, or throwaway crating to release their carbon earlier, but 30 years hence, when Ardern will be 71 and and apologising to Neve, 33, for her “nuclear moment”
Now they want other countries to bot only import our trees but grow them themselves.

Perhaps they could try Ireland, which is all tree-ed out. ~~Emerald~~ Dull Green Isle, of the great green vision –
“It’s like a wall around you, dead, darkness. It’s suffocating. We’re losing the landscape,” said Edwina Guckian, a member of Save Leitrim, a group that is resisting plantations.
“You couldn’t live in the middle of this thing unless you were Grizzly Adams,” said Jim McCaffrey, another member, crouching in a gloomy, tangled copse. “It’s absolute misfortune when you see the plantations coming.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/07/the-wrong-kind-of-trees-irelands-afforestation-meets-resistance

Perhaps the Government could consider something radical here – Like, actually reduce climate change emissions here within New Zealand itself?
Perhaps that too would justify Glasgow Climate Change Summit appointing James to enShaw member nations’s Transparency of emissions measures.
11 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:33am
- Trev
  
  Trees can be utilised as part of ongoing rotations that include replanting thus there is always a carbon sink. Additional storage via the utilised product is a bonus.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:55am
70andstilllearning

@Tauhei Notts – The terms of the funding contract are “Anything that remotely contradicts our official view shall not be published”.
15 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:34am
Paulus

Am still puzzeled about the wunnerfully brilliant low unemployment rate at 3.2%.
Why is the Jobseeker figures not included ?
You still get paid when you are in this category so why do anything towards a job – there are thousands of vacancies we are told.
Last year this was 124,000, this year it has gone up over 50,000 to 189,000.
Where are all these people – doing nothing except cash jobs.
18 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:42am
I remember when

Britannica:
Jew: In the modern world a definition of Jew that would be satisfactory to all is virtually impossible to construct, for it involoves ethnic and religious issues that are both complex and controversial.
Wikipedia: Semitic people:
Antisemitism: Objections to the usage of the term, such as the obsolete nature of the term “semitic” as a racial term and the exclusion of discrimination against non-Jewish Semitic people, have been raised since at least 1930.

And therein lies the problem, so many answers, so many opinions.
8 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:42am
Maggie Pie

This REALLY REALLY creeped me out!

Imagine ghouls like this being let inside your house 🙁

‘CRIME SCENE CLEANERS’, a company that is used by the likes of the Police and The Ministry of Justice, has been posting images on social media of the aftermath of suspected suicides, sudden deaths, domestic violence, etc.

One photo, of decomposing body parts, showed images of maggots feasting on leftover body-fluids, with the caption…..”More delicious hungry maggots. Human remains for the fat wee beasties”

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD – surely it’s time the ‘Cleaning Contract’ was put out to Tender?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/461064/cleaners-post-crime-suspected-and-attempted-suicide-scene-photos-on-social-media
12 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:49am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Indefensible, and yet the owner makes many tone-deaf excuses and downplays it all.
  When there was no consent to post photos, and they post pictures from blood splatters from suicides, and easily recognisible scenes for families – with such poor taste commentary – they should be excluded from any public contracts, and ideally suffer some consequences.
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:01pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YES…he sounds like a total Knob!
    No wonder the staff think they can act like that.
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:38pm
Clownworld

So it is not possible adverse effects could happen?

No children have ever died or could ever die from the Pfizer experimental latest vaccine?

Or is it such an astronomical small chance that it is not even probable, although possible?

Or is it that all people who disagree with something are automatically right or wrong once you shout a slogan at them?

If a sign with words offends , maybe view the sign with balance. Listen to understand not to react without thinking first.

Lots of questions before jumping to the gun…

Possible?
Has it happened yet?
Could it happen?
Very very unlikey to happen?
Do you have a child?

You could be right too.
8 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:54am
Truman lodge

I see under herald premium this morning a VP of a club got youths to do drug deals as he worked as a youth worker for oranga tamariki. I wonder if its the club that gets meth rehab funding?
13 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:56am
andretti

How many have noticed the amount of women in leadership roles,its now an epidemic.
Look i do know a few very talented women who deserve the positions they have achieved,but only a few.
By their very nature men are leaders (back in history anyway) being led by a woman can lead to serious consequences as most of the time decisions they make are not based on logic but on feelings.
Most objective men and women know this.
12 9
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:13am
- kowtow
  
  A good woman beats the soy boys hands down.
  
  Trudeau , Bojo, Macron, Andrews ( Victoria) . God help us.
  
  13 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:07am
- bronny1
  
  Seriously?
  
  9 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:45pm
- MCōs
  
  Pretty obvious who’s the boss in your family and it ain’t you.
  
  2 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:49pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Emasculated by soy boys. Almond milk, but just warmed please, not hot.
  I will drive – no you won’t, you know when you can drive (up to grandma’s place)
  Can I have something other than mince or eye steak?
  
  No way I am drinking anymore unless it is ‘Claytons’
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:50pm
westernScientest

looks like the cops are going to try and arrest a few hunderad people from the convoy protest.

live stream:
https://rumble.com/vudiy4-live-convoy-2022-nz-day-3-wednesday-9th-february-2022.html

Note I know counterspin are morons, but its a live stream, happy to see a better one. Mods Im not suggesting anyone listen to their nonsense, but it is a live stream from on the ground. And it looks like things might get nasty, which would be good for people to know what happened from somewhere other than Stuffed.
7 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:23am
- westernScientest
  
  There are 100s of cops there now, at what point does this become a serious missallocation of resources. If the crims see this I expect a lot of houses to be robbed today….
  
  12 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:44am
- westernScientest
  
  all the protesters are just sitting down and singing moari songs. No signs of any aggressive behaviour.
  
  18 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 10:48am
  - Batman
    
    Maori songs??? Well then it must in fact be a communistic and Marxist protest which is trying to overthrow our democracy.
    
    It must be that, based on comments yesterday.
    
    6 26
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:39am
    - westernScientest
      
      dont worry batty, they were only the te reo classics that everyone knows. The brown people are still white supremacists, Im sure willy jackson will agree.
      
      If it makes you feel better they are singing the great marxist anthem “slice of heaven” now.
      
      14 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:00pm
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      Or rather, the cloak of Maoridom is not going to protect them in this case.
      Because the issue here is NOT about race or petty identity politics.
      
      Not sure what comments you saw yesterday – doesn’t mesh with what I saw, in terms of the well wishes and general positivity on KB for the convoy.
      Never saw a criticism around the racial make up either, in fact some comment that the mix of people (age and race) in the crowd was pleasing to see.
      
      9 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:08pm
      - Batman
        
        I was drawing from the other thread on treaty issues, in which is was noted by a few people that it was all a Communist plot.
        
        Am I holding my tongue in cheek? Yeah, a bit.
        
        4 9
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:48pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Drop it Batman. Those dorks were protesting because that is what they do. The rent a mob, dicks.
      See the flags? wtf has a Moari flag got to do with this convoy?
      “all the protesters are just sitting down and singing moari songs”
      Almost like Jan 7 in Washington DC. right Batman?
      
      4 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 3:57pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Oh, throw the arrest warrant back at Police is prob assault?
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:02pm
  - curry4me
    
    westernScientist: That’s a good tactic.
    
    0 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:50pm
- westernScientest
  
  they are still just hanging around not doing a lot other than singing, again no aggression to be seen.
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:40pm
  - Batman
    
    You can listen to the speakers and heckles from the crowd on the Stuff video.
    
    The speakers are ramping them up again, and hecklers are shouting insane shit at police and media.
    
    What happened to backing law enforcement?
    
    4 11
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:55pm
- bronny1
  
  The “live”I saw, the police were advancing while they protesters sang the national anthem.
  
  I am gobsmacked that you think the mods of a blog website would have a problem with coverage of the biggest civil action in most of our lifetimes, which is not being covered by MSM.
  .
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:53pm
  - westernScientest
    
    The comment wasnt to do with the coverage of the event itself, it was to do with the source wrt DPFs misinformation policies on covid. Counterspin push some stuff which would fit his definitions of covid misinformation, and during the live stream they have said things which would probably met his criteria, that if posted directly I suspect the mods would likely delete as ‘anti-vax crap’.
    Sorry to the mods if the comment offended any of you.
    
    It is also a horrible quality live stream, so wouldn’t mind a better one being linked.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:31pm
Gulag1917

Analysing reported bank balances suggested most Kiwis – around 60 per cent of the adult population – do not have more than $10,000 in cash.
The culture needs to change.
9 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:25am
- westernScientest
  
  cash is trash, especially as inflation rises.
  I get the point though.
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:15am
- Bobba Fret
  
  A Stuff or Herald quiz question last week said 40% of NZ’ers do not even have $1,000 in the bank for emergencies!
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:45pm
  - kowtow
    
    Cindy’s core support .
    
    6 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:09pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S90e8_vJ0Gk

Canada is counting down!

The Canadian truckers who are parked up protesting in Ottawa and brought their capital to a standstill, are getting reports that there will soon be a massive and concerted federal police action against them. [3:10]
9 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:34am
- Master Mariner
  
  Mayor issues State of Emergency
  
  https://theprint.in/world/covid-19-emergency-in-canada-capital-over-truckers-protest-australia-reopens-after-2-years/823589/#:~:text=The%20mayor%20of%20Canadian%20capital%20Ottawa%20has%20declared,of%20control%E2%80%9D%2C%20with%20demonstrators%20outnumbering%20police%2C%20reports%20BBC.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:46pm
- All_on_Red
  
  You mean those racist white supremacist Truckers?
  https://www.thecanadianbazaar.com/how-punjabis-came-to-dominate-trucking-industry-in-canada/
  Lol
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:41pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6okJ2NsyzUU

Anti mandate protestors ordered to remove tents from Parliament Grounds, Wellington, NZ , 09.02.22.

How long before Stalinda uses the police to disperse them. Just like her pal Trudope. They should retaliate by refusing to deliver anything to Wellington.
17 5
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:34am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  What makes these people feel entitled to break the rules of the sovereign parliament that every other protest group abides by?
  
  They’re not special. Rule of law and all that.
  
  I note the complete lack of a truck convoy, versus no-hopers in caravans, cars, and 4x4s… They ain’t delivering jack shit anywhere.
  
  5 36
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:11am
  - John Pakes
    
    Quite right Batman. They are breaking the rules. Kick them off.
    You are spot on with your description of the convoy
    
    6 29
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:19am
  - westernScientest
    
    can you name a single group in the last two years who has abided by them?
    
    BLM: Nope
    XR: Nope
    FRC: Nope
    Groundswell: Maybe, I would guess you say No though.
    
    14 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:23am
    - Batman
      
      The BLM and FRC events were organised one-day events which were over by dinner time.
      
      XR are a group of hard line losers, who didn’t actually protest at Parliament but tried to gum up the train stations (oh the irony) and intersections. They should have been arrested as should every other drop kick blocking and obstructing traffic, or trespassing.
      
      There’s no comparison, especially to groundswell which was well organised aside from a few unhelpful signs and flags which detracted from the message.
      
      These losers are trying to copy overseas astroturf operations, based on a rabble who believe in conspiracy delusions.
      
      They should be arrested wherever anyone is found to break the law by trespassing, obstructing traffic, or causing unlawful disorder etc
      
      4 27
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:36am
      - Sean OConnor
        
        I, too, don’t believe that Ihumatao was occupied and that the government encouraged it every step of the way. Nor Shelly Bay. That’s wingnut conspiracy stuff.
        
        Also, it’s completely routine that the Christchurch City Council charges protestors tens of thousands of dollars; the idea that there’s politically motivated state suppression of normal protest movements is nonsense.
        
        BLM definitely didn’t vandalise any statues or leave piles of rubbish behind, nor did any of its members openly wave flags with Stalin-era communist logos.
        
        Truly, these anti-mandate people are uniquely reprehensible. They’ve had loads of opportunity to express themselves in mainstream publications and it’s not like they’re cancelled on social media.
        
        Kill them all, I reckon.
        
        13 6
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:03pm
      - david
        
        Including the occupiers of Ihumatau?
        
        8 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:08pm
      - Batman
        
        I firmly believe they should have been remoced.
        
        5 6
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:48pm
      - Batman
        
        I firmly believe they should have been removed.
        
        6 6
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:48pm
  - rouppe
    
    What laws were they breaking?
    
    None, which is why he had to issue a trespass order (can he do that for public land?).
    
    There are now 100 police lined up a la Springbok Tour.
    
    Contrast with Extinction Rebellion that blocked roads, and no action taken.
    
    Arresting people for protesting the government (if that’s what transpires) is very Kim Jong Un
    
    19 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:33am
    - Batman
      
      You don’t understand how Parliamentary Sovereignty works.
      
      Go look it up. The Speaker is in control. The Police have to be invited onto the grounds, as they will no doubt have been.
      
      4 17
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:45am
    - westernScientest
      
      I think the speaker does have authority over the grounds, so can issue a trespass order (or maybe request one from another authority) but it is still public land, so it would have to be in accordance with the BOR and other relevant legislation. Of course a bunch of that has probably been suspended. Pretty sure it has been though courts before.
      
      Of course there is also the numerous traffic violations.
      
      9 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:53am
      - Batman
        
        Parliament has authority.
        
        It is not ‘public’ land as per the common usage of the term.
        
        No, citing the BOR isn’t a get out of jail free card.
        
        No laws have been “suspended” that’s idiotic.
        
        4 19
        Report
        February 9, 2022 11:57am
      - westernScientest
        
        Batty, I wasn’t suggesting that what he did was unlawful, I see no reason to think it was. But the order would still have to be consistent with those laws, for example he couldn’t trespass someone on parliament grounds for being of a certain race.
        
        5 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:10pm
      - Batman
        
        I wasn’t suggesting that you were so all good WS 🙂
        
        3 6
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:03pm
      - Taieri
        
        Batman
        Parliament has authority.
        ————————
        
        And whom does this authority come from?
        
        6 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:50pm
      - Batman
        
        Yeah that’s not how that works.
        
        The election is next year. Until then, normal laws apply and these morons need to fuck off.
        
        Just listen to the Stuff live stream of the speakers. Just absolute mongs going on about the rule of law and how N95s give you lung damage.
        
        It’s the national convention of bush lawyers and the gullible.
        
        3 11
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:54pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Net Taxpayer owns that land – not the duck. He has no right to enforce this.
        What do socialist do here? Oh boy! bring in the Military.
        Do we have a military that can be ordered by the duck?
        
        2 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 4:09pm
    - westernScientest
      
      here you go, from the community law centre
      
      Can I be trespassed from Parliament and other public buildings or places?
      Cases: Police v Walker [1977] 1 NZLR 355 (CA); Police v Beggs [1999] 3 NZLR 615 (HC)
      
      Yes, you can be trespassed from public buildings and places such as Parliament government department offices, schools, libraries and museums, in the same way that a private homeowner or business can trespass you.
      
      However, unlike being trespassed by a private landowner or occupier, you’re protected to some extent by the the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act if you’re trespassed from public places. The decision to trespass you must be reasonable taking into account your rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression under the Bill of Rights.
      
      Can I be trespassed from Parliament grounds?
      Cases: Police v Walker [1977] 1 NZLR 355 (CA) – Police v Beggs [1999] 3 NZLR 615 (HC)
      
      Yes, Parliament’s Speaker of the House can trespass you, exercising their rights as the legal occupier of Parliament grounds. But unlike a private homeowner or company, they’re restricted by your rights under the Bill of Rights, and so their decision to trespass you must be a reasonable one.
      
      This is because in trespassing you the Speaker is exercising a public function, and so is restricted by the Bill of Rights, the same way other public or government officials are bound by the Bill of Rights.
      
      You can challenge the Speaker’s decision in the courts if you think it’s unreasonable, either by applying for judicial review of the decision in the High Court, or, if you’ve been arrested and charged, by challenging the Speaker’s decision at your trial.
      
      https://communitylaw.org.nz/community-law-manual/chapter-4-activism/protests-and-the-general-criminal-law/trespass/
      
      14 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:23pm
      - Batman
        
        They’re have exercised their freedom of expression for 24 hours plus.
        
        Therefore, I doubt any court would overturn the trespass notice.
        
        3 14
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:46pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Reading chapter 11 of Parliamentary Practice in NZ could assist. Among other things, the speaker’s expectation is that:
        
        Without express authority to the contrary, no demonstration should last for longer than a normal working day, that is, eight hours
        
        5 7
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:04pm
  - marleybob
    
    Entitled like people marching over Auckland bridge, Is there a difference ****
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 6:25pm
- kevn
  
  @curry… Refuse to deliver anything to the Beehive?
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:36am
  - curry4me
    
    kevn: Yes, that could work too.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:56pm
- DeepBlue
  
  I wonder if the Nat List MP from Whanganui is locked in Luxon’s wardrobe.
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:02pm
curry4me

https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2022/02/07/argentina-officially-joins-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/

Argentina joins Belt and Road.

Argentina’s government officially joined Beijing’s infrastructure-building Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on Sunday, China’s state-run Global Times reported.
The development took place on February 6 in Beijing, China, following an in-person meeting between socialist Argentine President Alberto Fernandez and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. The two leaders met for bilateral talks 48 hours after Fernandez attended the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on February 4.
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:37am
70andstilllearning

Was looking for something I thought I heard said by the PM yesterday in her “Statement” – it was something about future views of the our current times – but found this instead.

“The debate on the Prime Minister’s statement was adjourned with 9 hours 2 minutes remaining.”

Nothing of substance to debate I guess……

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/daily-progress-in-the-house/daily-progress-for-tuesday-8-february-2022/
13 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:37am
- mikenmildagain
  
  The prime minister makes a statement to parliament at the beginning of each parliamentary year. The debate on the statement is allocated 13 hours of debating time. This time is spread over several days, and will be adjourned several times. So nearly three hours was spent on the first day, out of the seven hours available yesterday. Perhaps the rest of the day was devoted to debating the many pieces of legislation being considered by the house of representatives.
  
  5 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:53pm
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Oh dear mike – ‘spose I could have included a link to:
    
    “Order Paper
    Wednesday, 9 February 2022
    Sitting hours 2pm to 6pm and 7pm to 10pm
    Order of Business
    Government order of the day No 1
    Petitions
    Papers
    Select committee reports
    Introduction of bills
    Oral questions
    Debate on Prime Minister’s statement
    Adjourned debate on the question, That this House express its confidence in the Government
    and commend its programme for 2022 as set out in the Prime Minister’s statement (Rt Hon
    Jacinda Ardern) and the amendment proposed to it.
    (Debate adjourned 8 February 2022)”
    ……..
    ……..
    ……..
    but the weather’s been crap out on the water so sent fishing somewhere else instead for a bit of fun …… . 🙂
    
    5 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:58pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Just trying to help you and others obviously unfamiliar with parliamentary procedure.
      
      4 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:17pm
      - 70andstilllearning
        
        Fair general comment Mike – but linking “you” & “obviously unfamiliar” is maybe a bit presumptive . :):)
        
        6 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:11pm
leoj

Nash resigns from Hosking show.
Chicken, under instruction from Cindy.
The worm is turning.
What does Labour’s internal polling REALLY say?
32 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:43am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Yes, that was really odd, live on air – ducking away, and wanting someone else from Labour to front on the show.
  
  That said, Nash is always “we are the envy of the world, huge success, perfection, all because of Jacinda” on every point.
  No mention about people having to hunger strike in MIQ to get to see their dying father, or acknowledgement of total costs to government policy.
  He was so black and white, he was no interest to listen to – other than showing how deluded some people are.
  Surely NO party is 100% correct on everything, or perfect, and no policy should be pretended as not having oppurtunity costs.
  The fact that he could not even acknowledge nuance means he was pretty useless to listen to.
  But if he is wanting another minister to step up to the plate on Hosking….LOL.
  He at least could confidently spout a tremendous amount of blather, whereas you can see so many of the rest of them having the self awareness of their inadequacies to at least struggle in that forum.
  Nash is the kind of person who couldn’t even acknowledge any room for improvement, because to do so means that they haven’t gotten everything right in the first place. Shameless and actually useless – because you can never get better. At least Chippie concedes where changes were made, or things weren’t the best.
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:18pm
- Nickc2
  
  Methinks the Great Reset has begun within the current Govt. Polls work in mysterious ways.
  However, I’m surprised Cindy got rid of Nash from the Hosking show. He’s been the most sniveling worshiper of her since whenever. Who if anyone will replace him? Seriously, I doubt he will be replaced such is the talent pool within the Govt.
  Is Cindy’s own job in jeopardy?
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:37pm
graham

Oh dear …

Stuart Nash has just thrown his toys out of the cot and quit Hosking’s show – live on air. Either because he’s too busy, or “it’s time for a fresh voice” – he can’t quite decide.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/stuart-nash-quits-the-mike-hosking-breakfast-live-on-air/VWYB62FLZQ22GBEF7W6QNW3BXU/
25 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:46am
- big bruv
  
  Id be willing to wager that Cindy has told him to quit the show. She’s not dealing well with those who dare question her.
  
  26 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:34am
- Gravelroad
  
  Maybe it’s just that the self-indulgent Mr Nash has now made too many stupid, nasty, divisive statements for even the radio management to put up with.
  If I were a paying advertiser I wouldn’t allow my business to be promoted anywhere near a segment featuring what Mr Nash had to contribute.
  
  10 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:49pm
ecco

Watched that new format AM show on tv3 yesterday which I’d recorded. Used to watch it previously as I enjoyed listening to Richardson, Garner and also Ryan Bridge.

Wow they’ve munted a good show. It’s just horrible now. Poor Ryan! Those other two women Oliver-Kirby and Chan-Green are ex newsreaders and come across as, well, ex newsreaders. Chan-Green turned me off immediately with her view that te reo should be compulsory in schools. I presume that was scripted to make the show more woke.

That weather guy William Wairua was not good either. Granted it’s early days. Where did they find him? He has a long way to go.

They had that awful political reporter Jenna Lynch and her continuation of the Tova angle. Pure Cindy fan girls.

Sad to see. Trying to fix something that wasn’t broke. Maybe I’m just not their target market…

Anyway I started listening to Hosking in the morning last year, after all these years. Enjoy his program a lot. Also like the On demand functionality on the zb site where you can listen to 15 minute slots from any day. Hawkesby is also good at 5am. Albeit a tad early for me.

I’ll tune into Richardson when his radio show starts up. Without Richardson on morning tv there isn’t going to be much right leaning commentary heading into the election. I guess Cindy organised that via the covid media bribe fund allocations and requirements.

Bridge, whom I rate, must be worried about the direction of the AM show. His body language looked distinctly uncomfortable and I don’t think it was just the horrible couch he was sitting on…
20 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:48am
- big bruv
  
  Bridge will be gone within six months. Cindy will get him fired.
  
  20 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:30am
  - ecco
    
    Possibility. I guess they will put someone like Gower back in there.
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:55am
    - lifesgood
      
      And no one will watch.
      
      10 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:08pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  I very rarely listen to Hosking. I do occasionally hear snippets from him on RNZ’s excellent Mediawatch programme. They do this amusing thing where they take something he said a few weeks ago and contrast it with what he has said more recently, or even with events from the ‘real world’.
  
  2 29
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:22pm
- Black with a Vengeance
  
  Ahhh Richardson…
  
  The voice of white male privilege taking itself for granted out of a deep seated sense of entitlement.
  
  Another Old Zealander well past his use by date.
  
  0 10
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:32pm
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Speaking of out of date; the concept of tangata whenua especially when people can change races based on pecuniary gain or “identity” whilst ignoring the more significant aspects of their heritage.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:34pm
    - Black with a Vengeance
      
      Tangata whenua is not what you think it is, neither are races.
      
      You do know what millennium this is and where you are ?
      
      0 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 6:01pm
kevn

@70… Just a ‘jack-up’ as they say.
9 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:53am
I remember when

The Stats NZ death totals by age group show that in the 2019 year –
34,260 New Zealanders died that year.
By percentage of deaths age group totals were –
65-74 total deaths 5,838 = 17%
75-84 total deaths 8,991 = 26.2%
85+ total deaths 12,702 = 37.8%
The total deaths in the 65+ age group equalled 81% of all deaths.

There seems to be a remarkable similarity to the covid percentages experienced worldwide.
21 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 10:57am
Clownworld

Maths and logic not Ardern’s strong point.
That’s why Labour removed metrics for targets.
Easier to spin the narrative.
9 years of neglect…
22 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 11:04am
Frank the tank

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-medical-analyst-changes-tune-covid-restrictions-science-changed

One for the Bat. Funny how electoral oblivion makes the ‘science’ change
13 4
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 11:05am
- bronny1
  
  Frank the science can’t have changed. The science is settled. Cindy said so and as a <50 year old woman I believe everything she says. //s
  
  8 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:11pm
All_on_Red

Democrats gerrymander 22 of 26 Districts in NY
https://www.city-journal.org/new-yorks-obvious-gerrymander
8 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 11:26am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Looks bad, doesn’t it? Luckily the supreme court has said that gerrymandering is okay, so long as its done for partisan political reasons and not for overt racism.
  
  3 13
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:57am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Only about 8-odd months until you and Bat bemoan the death of US democracy as the Dems get flung out of office Mikey
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:11pm
- curry4me
  
  All_on_Red: NY will still be solid blue. Meanwhile, nationally, it’s the GOPs turn to gerrymander, based on census data. That’s not looking good for Dems. It partly explains some of the 28 ‘retirements’.
  
  3 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:03pm
westernScientest

So the experts are starting to say what people here have been saying would happen for weeks:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127719302/covid19-case-numbers-likely-double-people-unofficially-isolating-epidemiologists-say
15 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 11:30am
- Julie
  
  The experts on three figure salaries and paid in full regardless of circumstances can not understand the financial situation of those who may have both income earners isolating for up 24 days on less than minimum wages but no reduction in expenses.
  If the government want them to isolate for the good of the country they need to meet the costs, ie full pay, the same as they pay their employees.
  
  19 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:48am
  - Batman
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Julie have you been vaccinated to reduce the burden on taxpayers from illness and disruption?
    
    Otherwise you’re just advocating for socialism without any personal responsibility.
    
    4 39
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 11:53am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      She would probably prefer some form of universal basic income, like the other snowflakes.
      
      1 28
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 11:59am
    - Julie
      
      Yes fully vaccinated and bolstered. Im not working so does not affect me but i understand were the young and low paid are coming from.
      Those on secure well paid jobs do not seem to understand or care that a 24 day isolation can near cripple some of these families.
      
      18 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:05pm
      - Batman
        
        Ok, great news, and good on you!
        
        Yeah I understand that. Though there are measures in place to get people through, and in the current employment market any good employer will want to keep their staff rather than have to spend weeks replacing them.
        
        1 20
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:50pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        “…in the current employment market any good employer will want to keep their staff rather than have to spend weeks replacing them.”
        
        That sentence shows just how hopelessly out of touch you are with what’s happening in New Zealand. Sure, you might be all over the beltway issues and what’s going on in the mythical neologistic land of Outer-roa, but outside your insulated little bubble the engine-room of New Zealand’s economy has been sent to the wall many times over by this callous, stupid, single-lens government response.
        
        You think they’re worried about having to replace employees, while they’re going through extreme stress and hardship just trying to keep the doors open. Business closures in 2020 (Feb to Feb 21) were up by a third on previous years, and outnumbered the businesses that started – the first time in a decade this has happened.
        
        2021 is set to be no better, with Auckland business closures up 13.8% in September on the previous year. Still, I imagine you’re just fine. Good on you!
        
        18 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:05pm
    - Lee C
      
      Well spoken, Battyman.
      
      4 7
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:10pm
    - Sean OConnor
      
      Why? Would them getting vaccinated stop transmission of the virus through the community? Or will the same number of people be infected long term anyway?
      
      Just kidding, pal, I’m with you. Personally, I love BORA rights being made dead letters. We should do it with political opinions too; you have the right to say things but if you belong to the wrong party then employment law shouldn’t protect you. All rights should be interpreted as narrowly as possible and as long as the government doesn’t actually send you to jail, it’s not really punishment.
      
      12 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:15pm
      - Batman
        
        Sean you’re getting hysterical, as some like to say Ardern does.
        
        Vaccination reduces illness, reduces chance of hospitalisations, and reduces (but doesn’t prevent) spread.
        
        As posted elsewhere, the BORA protects against unreasonable Trespassing but at this point it is very unlikely to be upheld given they have had 24+ hours and are actively blocking roads and Parliament.
        
        2 18
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:01pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        I’m not hysterical, I’m mocking the deficiencies underlying your arguments with sarcasm.
        Vaccine mandates won’t prevent any transmission whatsoever; the number of infections will be the same over two or three years. It’s a threshold function; unless there’s a chance of herd immunity, there’s no moral argument for the jab and it’s purely a matter of personal choice.
        
        Therefore employment laws that discriminate against people for exercising their right to refuse medication are morally unjustified.
        
        9 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 5:23pm
    - bronny1
      
      Batty have you gone on a diet and dealt with your hypertension to keep the country safe? No I didn’t think so.
      
      Ps the science has moved on everywhere except Oceania. Vax does NOT reduce transmission or hospitalisation anymore and the jury is still out on deaths….it’s a mixed bag.
      
      14 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:12pm
  - RightNow
    
    Julie have you kept fit and at a healthy weight to reduce the burden on taxpayers from illness and disruption?
    
    Otherwise you’re just advocating for socialism without any personal responsibility.
    
    11 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:18pm
    - Batman
      
      Also that. And you too RN!
      
      Oddly, the young athletes who have died from covid would suggest getting vaccinated.
      
      3 17
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:58pm
      - bronny1
        
        The young athletes who have died of myocarditis would suggest avoiding it like the plague if you are young and fit.
        
        16 3
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:16pm
      - RightNow
        
        The young vaccinated athletes… good one Batty
        
        7 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:32pm
      - alloytoo
        
        Would they?
        
        It’s a great unknown.
        
        4 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:51pm
      - Batman
        
        They probably would.
        
        As for Bronny and RN, here you go:
        
        https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1429801714249519107?t=rpV9QYVUAONXqEAXPxikuA&s=19
        
        https://twitter.com/Cleavon_MD/status/1429801714249519107?t=rpV9QYVUAONXqEAXPxikuA&s=19
        
        Just two of the stories of young fit people who were savaged by covid.
        
        3 9
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:24pm
      - Batman
        
        Bronny, you are barking up the misinformation tree as usual my friend.
        
        You are far more likely to get it from covid than the vaccine.
        https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/comment/myocarditis-risks-covid-19-vaccines/
        
        Of course, it makes a nice scary story when people attempted to link athlete deaths to the vaccine and failed:
        https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/technology/covid-vaccines-misinformation.html?smid=url-share
        
        2 11
        Report
        February 9, 2022 2:35pm
      - alloytoo
        
        Bats has become a Psychic Medium.
        
        4 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 6:44pm
    - Julie
      
      Sorry to disappoint you but i am in fact. Im right in the normal range for BMI, exercise every day eat healthy food and never been in hospital except for bearing two future tax payers, ie children. In fact i feel i should get a tax refund for being so healthy and not using up health resources!
      
      14 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:27pm
      - RightNow
        
        You aren’t disappointing me at all, I have a government for that.
        
        5 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:34pm
Sean OConnor

ACT refuses to even go and listen to the convoy protestors.

Absolutely every protest ends up with one or two MPs going to listen for a bit as an exercise in hearing the people directly. But not this one.

ACT is not pro freedom or pro free speech; they’re just more NZ swamp creatures.
26 6
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 11:54am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  That really tells you something about the huge unpopularity of that protest group.
  
  They are supported by probably less than 5% of the country.
  
  5 39
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 11:58am
  - Sean OConnor
    
    God forbid! Imagine 5% of the country being allowed representation in any organised fashion! I certainly can’t dispute the rigorous science behind the way you derived that number, either.
    
    16 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:11pm
    - Batman
      
      They’re there and have been for at least a day haven’t they?
      
      They were top story on the news.
      
      Job done. Now move along.
      
      P.S. I was being generous. It might well be less.
      
      2 22
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 1:02pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        Your intellectual generosity can always be relied upon. Isn’t plucking numbers out of the air a great way to argue? Definitely less…I reckon at least 50% of the unvaccinated are pro-mandate.
        
        And it’s not like in Canada 32% sympathise with the truckers.
        
        7 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:09pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Take a look at Shane Reti’s Facebook page, you may revisit your conclusions.
    Normally Shane’s page is full of supportive messages as he is (Or was) a highly regarded community figure.
    
    12 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:19pm
    - Matt Long
      
      I wonder if beltway people like Batty and Mikey have any clue about the adverse effects COVID restrictions have had on small business and people in general outside of their narrow social circle. The people I see who used to be Cindy fans and are anti now are getting more and more outraged.
      Of course if you’re on the Government gravy train or are part of Jacinda’s army of Karen’s everything looks great.
      
      28 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:28pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I wonder about lots of things too.
        
        3 11
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:42pm
  - graham
    
    That really tells you something about the huge unpopularity of that protest group.
    
    Does it? Or does it tell you more about the very real fear held by our politicians that they would be hauled over the coals by the media, portrayed as “anti-vax” nutters (because our media have a great deal of difficulty in differentiating between “anti-vaccine” and “anti-mandate”), and taken to task by a vicious media with the scent of blood in their flaring nostrils.
    
    16 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 12:30pm
    - Batman
      
      Your comment betrays your inflamed emotions, which is exactly the point.
      
      Most of the protestors are detached from reality, having been scared stuff by loons and their credulous belief of fake crap online.
      
      Given the amount of speakers talking about harming children and tall tales of mass deaths, it seems there is no distinction between anti-vax and anti-mandate. They’re one in the same, with the latter used as a cover for the former.
      
      2 24
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 12:43pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        “…having been scared stuff…” hahaha well done Batty, albeit unintentionally.
        
        12 1
        Report
        February 9, 2022 12:50pm
      - lifesgood
        
        Can some people not get it into their heads that very few in this convoy are anti vaxxers, most are anti mandates…a HUGE difference. You would have to be dumb or wilfully blind not to know that.
        
        18 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:04pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        Yes, the group that’s anti-mandate without being anti-vaccine doesn’t actually exist. Want to rethink that one?
        
        4 8
        Report
        February 9, 2022 1:11pm
      - Batman
        
        Ahhh yes, I’ll cop to the spelling mistake. *Scared stiff is the correct wording.
        
        Lifesgood: There is no functional difference when it comes to this combined protest.
        
        Sean: only a light scratching of the anti-mandate surface is required to find the IQ-deficient anti-vax core.
        
        0 12
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:23pm
      - graham
        
        “Inflamed emotions”? Hardly. I suggest you compare what I’ve written to some typical headlines in, say, the NZ Herald or Stuff, or the reporting on One News. If you consider what I’ve written to be indicative of my “inflamed emotions”, then the current crop of journalists and reporters would be positively manic by comparison.
        
        7 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:37pm
      - Batman
        
        Perhaps you just have a flamboyant writing style 😉
        
        0 7
        Report
        February 9, 2022 3:51pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        Which is a rhetoric that lets you assert that anti mandate types really don’t exist while allowing room for denying that’s your position because you know it’s indefensible.
        
        3 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 5:18pm
      - graham
        
        Hmm. My comment “betrays (my) inflamed emotions” and I “have a flamboyant writing style”, according to Batman.
        
        I dunno … personally, I’d say that someone who drops the F-bomb and talks about “loons” possibly has slightly more “inflamed emotions” than me … but there you go, to each their own.
        
        4 0
        Report
        February 9, 2022 6:53pm
  - lifesgood
    
    Ahem, what percentage supported Ihumatao? Any idea? or would you rather gloss over that.
    
    13 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:06pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Yes. 5%. And that’s why Winston Peters is now saying it’s time for the mandates to end. Can 5% change the political direction….why yes they can. Pity it’s not ACT or Nats but there you go. Winston Peters standing up for democracy.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:29pm
    - mawm
      
      Winston – ever the opportunist. At least he’s showing up ACT and National.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 2:49pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Oh, they’re still around? Probably explains why there is much more than the usual amount of litter on the central city streets today.
  
  2 21
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:01pm
- bythesea
  
  Mandates are obligatory!
  … until they are discarded, lol
  
  see increasing numbers of european nations
  
  14 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:07pm
  - bythesea
    
    “one way masking”
    you can see this on US media broadcasts now that the bottom has dropped out of covid world and they try to talk their listeners down off the ledge.
    https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1491196350306095106
    
    hahahaha
    
    do a search for “one way masking” and you will see a bunch of media outlets all parroting the same phrase
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:31pm
- RightNow
  
  And Seymour is probably still in the dark as to why support for ACT has plummeted.
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:19pm
  - MCōs
    
    Let’s not beat around the bush.
    ACT’s popularity is slip sliding away because David Seymour started to get cocky and the Nats went back to a typical conservative leader.
    
    2 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:31pm
- curry4me
  
  Sean OConnor: I’ve been saying that for a couple of weeks now. They’re no more the ‘freedom party’ than fly to the moon.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:07pm
Tauhei Notts

Misogynist
Racist
Conspiracy Theorist
I see that Stuart Nash threw his toys out of Hosking’s cot this morning. He called all his critics conspiracy theorists.
I have noticed that the default position of any of his ilk, when somebody conclusively argues that they are crap; is to respond with one of the above three epithets. Never argue the point; always resort to name calling.
32 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 11:58am
- mikenmildagain
  
  What should one call the misogynists, racists and conspiracy theorists?
  
  3 26
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:03pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Green voters?
    If you had included Sex Pests I would have said Labour
    
    17 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 1:52pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Maybe keep quiet because the Left have simply shown themselves completely incapable of correctly labelling anyone?
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:00pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      No, I won’t, but thanks for taking the time to make that suggestion.
      
      0 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 5:19pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  With regard to the last of those, I believe the current timeframe to go from “conspiracy theory” to “government policy” is now less than 3 months, so really it’s just a matter of time, Nashy.
  
  Just like your tenure as an MP….
  
  20 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:45pm
Lee C

Cindy won’t speak to protesters because she says they don’t represent the majority.
That’s funny
I don’t think Ihumatao protestors represented a majority
I don’t think Māori are a majority
I don’t think LGBTQ are a majority
I don’t think muslims are a majority
56 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 12:09pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Very well put Lee C.
  Spindy is a total fraud and one day the public might realise it.
  
  27 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 12:20pm
- kowtow
  
  Anyone recall how the “progressives” always shouted so loud and proud ;
  
  You can judge a democracy by how it treats its minorities .
  
  How’s that workin’ out now ?
  
  18 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:00pm
- BananaLlama
  
  Why is labour creating a disenfranchised minority group while claiming to stand up for disenfranchised minorities?
  Makes you think Lee.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:31pm
- Ehlana
  
  That must be why she didn’t want to talk to Aucklanders.
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:16pm
Sean OConnor

Since when was a freaking majority the only criteria of worth? Our whole damn political system is meant to be about allowing minorities to be heard while allowing most majority policy decisions.
20 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 12:17pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Jacinda killed our oil & gas industry with a petition signed by 35,000 people. She doesn’t care about majorities at all.
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:58pm
  - Sean OConnor
    
    Aide: “Prime Minister, protestors insist you talk to them.”
    JA: “I only talk to majorities.”
    Aide: “There’s seven lycra clad hipsters demanding a multibillion dollar cycle bridge”
    JA: “ADDRESS THEIR NEEDS!”
    
    6 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:16pm
Maggie Pie

Some people – honestly!!

Just popped down to the Pro Shop to get a couple of racquets restrung.
Chatting with the Coach and he says to me in passing …
“One of your eyebrows looks lower than the other”

I mean WTF? He be like…. o O
8 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 12:49pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Geez Maggie Pie..
  
  is there something you’re not telling us?
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300512967/police-appeal-for-information-on-serious-assault-in-aucklands-devonport
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:56pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Scary stuff Maggs. Just another reason I never play under lights.
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:50pm
cmm

If you are a taxpayer then you recently paid for this garbage study:

Teens are not walking to school because their backpacks are too heavy.

The average backpack was 5.2kg. Please – that’s hardly much. It is less than three 2-litre fizzys which they would carry with no problems at all.

People that age regularly backpack up mountains carry 3x that or more – for fun.

Many are getting backpain. That is being blamed on backpacks being too heavy. Nonsense. It is down to fitness and obesity. If you are obese and have no core strength (due to lack of exercise) then you will get back pains regardless of the weight of your backpack.

Many of the people complaining about carrying 5kg on their back are obese and willingly carrying far more than that around their middles.

For a person that is 1.5 metres tall, each BMI point is 2.25kg. An obese 1.5m person, by definition has at least 5 surplus BMI points) and is carrying at least an extra 11kg of fat.

Which is going to hurt your health more? 11kg of fat or 5 kg of books?

“She recommended the weight of a school bag should be limited to between 5 and 20 per cent of the carrier’s body weight.”

If she really wanted to address the issue she’d speak to the twin elephants in the room: unfitness and obesity.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/127722140/heavy-backpacks-a-barrier-to-teens-walking-to-school-study-finds
17 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 12:49pm
- alex Masterley
  
  What utter bollocks.
  My sons walk to their high school every day with back packs full of laptops and books (which are still used at the school they attend!)
  Good exercise for them.
  
  10 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:29pm
  - artemisia
    
    I reckon laptops and phones cause plenty of neck and back issues.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:20pm
- MCōs
  
  That’s not the first time I’ve heard concern being expressed that bulky backpacks can lead to long term back problems.
  Of course in our day we walked ten miles barefooted to school in snow up to our knees & it didn’t do us any harm.
  
  3 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:13pm
  - cmm
    
    “That’s not the first time I’ve heard concern being expressed …”
    
    Yup, it is by no means the first “researcher” to find this little trough. IT doesn’t make them right though.
    
    My walk to school was approx 15 minutes up a steep hill (through the neighbour’s paddocks etc). Normally either heavy dew or frost that looked like snow.
    
    I ate a lot, but was as skinny as a rake.
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:37pm
  - RightNow
    
    Luxury…
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:37pm
- graham
  
  I’m a not-particularly-fit man in my early fifties, but last year I was regularly cycling between 5 and 10 km to work with a backpack containing my laptop, lunch, change of clothes, and a heavy textbook. I’d guess the weight to be at least 10 kg. If I can do this, in my fifties, what the hell is wrong with our kids that they’re too fragile to do it?
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:08pm
Tony Stuart

Barry Soper fired a shot across Trevor Mallard’s bow on Newstalk ZB just after midday. Mallard has ordered journalists to stay off Parliament’s forecourt to which Soper said he’s not going to let the Speaker tell him how to do his job. Onya Bazza!
48 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 12:58pm
Fab4

Five million dollars to the Mongrel Mob and $400,0000 to New Zealand farmers–that shows you where Taxcinda’s priorities lie!
31 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 1:03pm
- MCōs
  
  Never mind $6oomil plus spent eradicating m bovis.
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123422271/mpi-m-bovis-programme-has-cost-3496-million
  
  1 8
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 1:24pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    You realise M Bovis was a result of the Government’s failure at the border right?
    It’s only right they fix up their mistake (National were in power but I’m talking about Government in general).
    
    So your argument is obviously irrelevant.
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 2:55pm
    - Yabster
      
      it often is…
      
      3 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 3:52pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I think his point was that public spending on helping farmers is much, much greater than public spending on the mongrel mob. Fab4 was attempting to prove otherwise.
      
      2 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 5:16pm
- kowtow
  
  By all accounts the 400 k will go to , again , Maori interests.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:02pm
kowtow

According to this farm workers aren’t crtical. WTF!

“We are working really hard for the farming industry to be defined as a critical workforce which would allow for close contacts to be able to continue to work if they are asymptomatic and test negative.’

https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-people/fears-farmers-will-not-get-tested
18 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 1:07pm
lifesgood

The New Zealand police force is a disgrace. Shame on them! It is a citizen’s right in a democratic society to protest and here they are blocking it like the little stazis that they are. It is time they grew a pair and told Jacinda to stuff it, we know the citizens’ rights. Pray tell me, did they rid Ihumatao of the ILLEGAL protestors who were trespassing?
23 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 1:12pm
- kowtow
  
  Cuddles Coster went along to a BLM church service .
  
  Even though their street gatherings broke covid rules , as I recall , happy to be corrected.
  
  17 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:01pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Don’t forget the koha!
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:01pm
MCōs

My wife, who is Thai and has seen plenty of mob action on the streets of Bangkok, wondered why the army doesn’t get in there with tear gas and water cannon & clear the rabble from the parliament forecourt.
Apart from anything they probably outnumber the army.
6 17
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 1:15pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Of course what she omitted was that similar action created the street fighting with real bullets that lead to the Thai Army Coup 8? years ago.
  
  Yep I was there.
  
  10 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:05pm
  - MCōs
    
    Last year on a regular basis . . . .
    https://thediplomat.com/2021/11/on-the-eve-of-reopening-thai-protesters-take-to-the-streets-again/
    
    0 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:57pm
BananaLlama

Roy Morgan has National/Act in government ahead of Labour/Greens for the first time in five years and hardly a peep anyone o_O
18 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 1:25pm
- westernScientest
  
  2nd time in a row. Their December poll showed it as well.
  
  https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/02/roy_morgan_poll_december_2021.html
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:15pm
emmess

Huge
Rumble offers to match Joe Rogan’s Spotify contract

https://www.foxbusiness.com/entertainment/rumble-joe-rogan-spotify
11 0
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 1:48pm
- BananaLlama
  
  You’re right, that’s huge.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:14pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  It’s a great time to be a comedian in demand.
  
  1 12
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 2:44pm
  - kevn
    
    @mma… So you will stay put?
    
    4 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:54pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I’m not taking any more bookings atm.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 5:11pm
- curry4me
  
  emmess: Yes, that’s god news I didn’t realize they were that big.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:13pm
krazykiwi

People on the NHS waitlist for more than 1 year:
Feb 2020: 1,600
Feb 2022: 300,000

That’s a 175x, or 17,500% increase. And not one day ago we had someone here claiming that these ‘interventions’ were just a little inconvenience.
15 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 2:41pm
- cmm
  
  I was a new heart patient at Chch Hospital in Feb 2020. I got to speak with a few cardiologists etc.
  
  They had worked very hard for about 18 months to bring everything under control and were, justifiably, very proud of what they had achieved.
  
  A month later they were shut down by the ridiculous Level 4 crap and all their bookings were cancelled (eg. my tests booked in March and April).
  When they finally started again they were months behind. My tests were delayed by 4 to 5 months). The cardiologist I spoke to was ready to chew his arm off with frustration.
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:44pm
  - mandk
    
    Sorry to hear of your experience, CMM, but it exemplifies how the cost side of the covid benefit:cost balance is rarely acknowledged by the govt and MoH, much less evaluated.
    
    9 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 4:15pm
Steve Todd

My word!

Watching parliament: The prime minister is looking rather fetching in her very nice red dress, as she effortlessly bats away the rote questions put to her by Luxon and Seymour.
2 15
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 2:58pm
- Inandout
  
  ST, batting has many meanings now.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:22pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    I ‘hear’ what you’re saying, Inny. Mine was the original meaning.
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:49pm
- Yabster
  
  fetching?- yuk yuk yuk- need to go to spec savers Todd?
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:54pm
- mandk
  
  Are you aware that questions can only be put in formulaic fashion, and the Ministers replying more-or-less have free rein and can grandstand at will?
  
  The PQ system is biased in favour of ministers.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 4:12pm
Maggie Pie

For those of you who dabble in Crypto like my partner does, you’ll probably see the funny-side of this 😀

‘A husband-and-wife-team were arrested in Manhattan yesterday for the BIGGEST EVER Cryptocurrency theft…..with Authorities seizing a record-shattering $3.6BILLION in Bitcoin they hacked from digital currency exchange Bitfinex’.

– REUTERS (9 Feb)

Here’s a pic of the gal involved…

https://twitter.com/CryptoWhale/status/1491203025461182464

And the comments. Just saying
6 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 3:08pm
westernScientest

A small number tried to break the police line, and one was taken away by the cops. Person on the loud speaker urging the crowd to sit down. Deescalated quickly.
4 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 3:19pm
- curry4me
  
  westernScientist: I hope that doesn’t happen again. They should go the Ghandi/MLK route like thay have been so far. Maybe sign a pledge to deliver nothing to Jacindagrad.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:19pm
Inandout

Northland is such a vibrant place..for some.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/black-power-members-among-eight-arrested-as-heated-clash-in-far-north-leads-to-police-bust/FOU7RH7UAF56WCPWZ4ZSPFP7NI/
10 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 3:20pm
Batman

Congratulations, the protest is now a farce:

“Men are breaking through the police line as protesters shout for executions.”

“…anger erupted amongst protesters who called for executions of government and media.”

Fucking told you so boys. The loons are just under the surface.
6 21
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 3:27pm
- herb1
  
  [lay off the personal abuse – Mod]
  
  2 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:30pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Most protests include loons. Occasionally they’re part of the protest too, rather than infiltrators determined to undermine the legitimate message. Speaking of loons, the old stone building adjacent to the protest is stuff to the gunnels with loons.
  
  16 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:33pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    You seem to imply that trouble at protests is mainly caused by infiltrators. does this apply to all protests, or only to protests with which you sympathize?
    Also, did you mean to imply that the loons are only located in the older building, not in the Beehive?
    
    2 14
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:39pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      I agree with krazy that idiots can and are free to turn up to any public protest. But it doesn’t follow that such bad faith actors or excitable individuals invalidate or deligitimise the entire crowd by association. As I’ve posted elsewhere with respect to sources of funding, the crowd behaviour has no bearing on the arguments being made, at most it may detract from the message , which leads credence to the notion that bad behaviour helps the authorities in lieu of an argument.
      
      But as to the question of the presence of agent provocatuers, if I were the authorities, if I wanted to discredit the protestors and thereby help my cause, then one of the first things I’d do is send in some people to provide bad optics by their actions and words, and thereby muddy the waters in terms of public perceptions of the whole.
      
      Would this benefit the protestors, or would it benefit the authorities? Clearly it’s the latter, so this would be a rational tactic for the authorities to employ, so therefore, it is highly likely that they’d do so. Conversely, it would be irrational and counterproductive for the truckers to act in an unbecoming manner, thus it is unlikely they’d do so.
      
      4 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 7:33pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        You theory can be easily tested by your identification of an agent provocateur. Please let me know when you have found such a person. It shouldn’t be hard to do, given the prevailing opinion on this blog that our government and its agencies are completely populated by bumbling idiots.
        
        2 2
        Report
        February 9, 2022 8:08pm
  - kowtow
    
    Judging by the flags etc looks just like the other land occupations this country constantly suffers , only it’s parliament this time.
    
    Pollies seem happy to have shite everywhere else except literally on their own front lawn.
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:10pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Parliament has clear rules about protests on the grounds. If this was a protest for a cause with which you didn’t sympathize, you would be asking why the protestors had not already been removed. Likewise with blocking the roads, not arresting people for obvious traffic offences, etc.
      
      3 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 7:04pm
- westernScientest
  
  According to stuff, but even on their own live stream I couldn’t hear the calls for execution, and only saw one person removed by police. Not saying it didnt happen, but wouldn’t trust the stuff bloggers to be accurate either.
  
  Still about the dumbest thing they could have done, which is unfortunate. Hopefully that was all of them and they can get on with their sing along.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:35pm
  - Batman
    
    I agree it’s very stupid.
    
    I’ve seen a couple of them on twitter who have been rousing support for a few hours now and trying to get people up the front to walk up the steps from 3pm… Evidently they got a group who somehow believed they could do it.
    
    The telegram chat channel was having similar delusions of the Police joining forces with them haha
    https://twitter.com/AndreAlessi/status/1491220384133578757?t=5m-4tuv6-0R-9XtVPZKmCQ&s=19
    
    3 10
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:40pm
- dcrane
  
  How do YOU tell the goons from the government-planted provocateurs, anyway? You seem so sure.
  
  13 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:38pm
  - Batman
    
    Cuckoo.gif
    
    3 14
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 3:50pm
- RightNow
  
  The real protestors have agreed they will sit down as soon as there’s a hint of violence and wait for it to be dealt with.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:43pm
- Batman
  
  Ok she’s all simmered down now.
  
  They’re currently singing Joelene, or at least listening to it.
  
  Now that’s a protest tune I can get behind!
  
  6 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 3:48pm
- mandk
  
  Questions for you:
  1. What was your source? You don’t specify one.
  2. Assuming it was some kind of media report, do you trust the media to report in an unbiased fashion?
  3. Do you understand what hyperbole is?
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 4:08pm
Maggie Pie

Found this interesting…..

CNBC reporting that the ‘Go Fund Me’ account set up to raise money for the defense of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange….has just closed after raising US$55 Million.

His lawyers will have a FIELD DAY 😀
9 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 3:41pm
- curry4me
  
  Maggie Pie: I hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate as the Canadian truckers one.
  
  3 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:21pm
Batman

Sometimes I love the internet.

A woman’s hacked Facebook account is being used to run some of the most popular Canadian trucker Facebook pages.

https://twitter.com/BySteveReilly/status/1491168971152044033?t=Sldg6NIn_jJ8FmXeaZh03g&s=19

https://www.grid.news/story/misinformation/2022/02/08/the-hacked-account-and-suspicious-donations-behind-the-canadian-trucker-protests/

“But a close look at several “Freedom Convoy” groups and crowdfunding efforts online shows the involvement of anonymous actors, deep-pocketed non-Canadian donors and prominent U.S. right-wing political figures.”

What a laugh.
4 10
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 3:59pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Like many allegedly ‘grassroots’ organisations, they will take money from anyone.
  
  1 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 4:09pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Yeah, the scamsters are out there.
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/black-lives-matter-shuts-down-fundraising-days-after-liberal-states-threatened-legal-action
    
    8 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 5:50pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    How is the source of funds at all relevant? Even if a hypothetical combination of Victor Orban, Vlad Putin and the executors of Genghis Khan’s estate funded the entire thing, I don’t see how that would in any way be relevant to nor undermine the argument against vaccine mandates in Canada.
    
    5 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:19pm
- All_on_Red
  
  So Batman, what did Mark Zuckerbergs $419 million get spent on during the last Election?
  You’re the laugh mate.
  
  10 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 5:54pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    LOL
    When one does it, “money=free speech”
    When another side does it, “big donors are subverting democracy”
    Rinse and repeat.
    
    3 7
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:00pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      One individual oligarch spending just short of half a billion USD with the express purpose of what is euphemistically characterised as “fortifying” an election result is not really comparable at all to many thousands of individuals making small donations towards rescinding mandates that are a clear breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and that involve a sum that is in the ball park of 2% of Zuckerberg’s efforts.
      
      5 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 7:48pm
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  Your naivety as to the substantive workings of politics beyond superficial distractions is impressive.
  
  It’s a predictable and transparent tactic: when the substance of the issues being protested or the arguments being made in support cannot be challenged on any reasonable grounds, focus instead on irrelevancies such as the derivation of funding. Last time I looked it isn’t illegal for foreigners to freely donate to a fund assisting Canadian truckers.
  
  Let’s say this claim is true for the sake of argument: how does this affect any argument the truckers are making? It doesn’t affect the arguments at all. Another reason “foreign influences” are apparently being posited is because it is illegal for the Canadian intelligence community to investigate the internal activities of Canadians, so they need to invoke the involvement of foreign actors. But again, any foreign donors don’t alter the anti-mandate argument one iota.
  
  5 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 7:13pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    It’s quite normal for foreign states to seek to influence the political climate in other countries. It is also quite normal for any country to protest against foreigners interfering their internal affairs.
    
    2 5
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:55pm
krazykiwi

A voting member of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee admitted that whether or not Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is safe for 5 to 11-year-old children won’t be known fully until it begins being administered.

“We’re never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it,” said panel member Dr. Eric Rubin during the hearing. “That’s just the way it goes.”

And in two weeks the FDA meets to decide if infants of 6 months can start receiving this jab. They already know that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine failed to produce any immune response in kids 2, 3 and 4 years old in clinical trials. But the FDA told Pfizer to submit its EUA application anyway, with no effective dosing data.

This is evil at work. Pure evil.
12 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 5:00pm
- kevn
  
  @kk…. Exactly, and who is trying the same trick on in NZ?
  No shame ash and dogma driven arden.
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 5:48pm
Benedict Yu

I cannot locate adequate snorting, mocking emoticons 🙂

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300511282/omicron-nz-modelling-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cases-with-peak-possible-in-midmarch

“New Zealand’s Omicron outbreak could result in millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of confirmed cases, newly released modelling shows.

Projections released by Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa – a group that includes Prof Michael Plank and Prof Shaun Hendy –……………………….”

Wow those two are a piece of work 🙂
21 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 5:12pm
All_on_Red

The Canadian Truckers have won Alberta.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/feb/8/alberta-caves-canada-trucker-protests-ends-vaccine/
11 3
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 5:46pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Fantastic news. I sincerely hope this will provide encouragement to the Freedom Convoy people doing us proud in Wellington.
  
  There is no justifiable health reason for discriminatory vaccine passports or vaccinating anyone, especially 5 year old kids, with an “experimental” vaccine with undetermined long term health effects.
  
  8 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:31pm
  - kevn
    
    @info… Shame about the out of order troublemakers in Welly
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 8:29pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      Hi Kevin,
      
      When hundreds or thousands of people congregate to express their opinion then there will always be some number of opportunistic people that will take advantage of the situation to denigrate their efforts.
      
      These demonstrators have taken time and trouble to try to save our freedoms. You should respect their efforts.
      
      6 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      February 9, 2022 9:04pm
      - kevn
        
        @info… I do. Muchly. Don’t assume.
        But in the tinderbox, some folk lose it and so play into ardens game and that is a shame.
        
        0 0
        Report
        February 10, 2022 8:07am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Canada’s Texas.
  
  3 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 6:55pm
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  And in so doing, once again demonstrating that they are unnecessary, as they have never been about health or science, and therefore also that no other country was justified in implementing them, nor is justified in maintaining them. Presumably the virus is indifferent as to which country it happens to be in, so there is no reason to have them anywhere. Moreover, the UK dropped theirs and other restrictions similarly for political expedience, along with several other European nations. It is reasonable to expect and to insist that New Zealand’s system should also be scrapped.
  
  8 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 7:02pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Amazingly, politicians will respond to shifts in political moods. Fortunately for Mother Russia, the only political moods allowed there are those approved in advance by the president.
    
    2 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 7:50pm
- krazykiwi
  
  This is excellent. I expect that behind the scenes Kenney realised he was loosing support of the police, and without a semi-military force acting on his wishes it was all over. But watch for him to let the protesters head home before slowly reintroducing restrictions.
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 7:58pm
Joely Doe

Kāinga Ora announces new measures to crack down on unruly state housing tenants

“One of the provisions in particular will enable Kāinga Ora to implement a warnings process, allowing us to apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to end a tenancy should there be three separate, and evidenced, incidents of a serious nature within a 90-day period.

No.
These are not new measures.
They are simply the standard measures as applied under the RTA.
As usual, the muppet journalist doesn’t know what the standard tenancy rules are.
11 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 5:55pm
Maggie Pie

Fleur from tennis has just retweeted this link…

“If this doesn’t get you moist girl – nothing will” 😛

https://youtu.be/7pg1hhW5qhM

And she not wrong!
2 2
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 7:23pm
- krazykiwi
  
  417km/h. And they would have used most of the tank of petrol getting there.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 7:53pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    You knows wot thay say KK….
    if you have to ask how many K’s yu get to the galon – you probly cant aford it 😀
    
    5 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    February 9, 2022 8:00pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  250mph approx
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  February 9, 2022 8:18pm
Surely Knott

And the housing crisis gets even worse as Trevor Mallard denies the protesters even a tent to sleep in. I hope they’ve bought sensible pj’s to sleep in if they are sleeping in the open air .
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 8:53pm
marcw

Oh dear, more unwelcome international news Headlines:

It’s Spreading!  
New Zealand Convoy Blocks Capital, Demands End to Vax Mandates  
Hyper-Fascist PM Too ‘Busy’ to Meet w/ Demonstrators

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/02/08/new-zealand-protest-convoy-blocks-capital-demands-end-to-vaccine-mandates/

Yes, I know it’s total hyperbole, hilarious, but it’s what you get when you ignore legitimate protest.
10 1
Log in to Reply
Report
February 9, 2022 9:33pm

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« Crimes against humanity

Labour not as crazy as the Greens »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 37.4K other subscribers

Highlights

Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments
Health Target 3 – Emergency Dept Waiting Times
Health Target 2 – Immunisations

Links

The American Voters’ Mandate
No Minister
Much ado about cussing…
Point of Order
Attorney-General and Chief Justice reveal contrasting visions of judicial power
Utopia
A guide to making a submission on the Treaty Principles Bill
The Standard
Sowell says
Hompaddock
You all understand these gang patch bans will get challenged in Court right?
The Daily Blog
Justice in Brazil
No Right Turn
"Seymour is only doing openly what M?ori nationalists and their Pakeha allies have been doing, quietly for the past 50 years."
Not PC
The transgender agenda sunk Kamala
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
What does “reciprocity” mean in New Zealand laws?
Croaking Cassandra
A Day of Reckoning
NZCPR
Media Link: “A View from Afar” on the US elections.
Kiwipolitico
This will not end well
Offsetting Behaviour
Top 14 Predictions for Round 10
Stats Chat
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz

editor@kiwiblog.co.nz

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d

%d

Share this:

Like this: